A New Player: Year Two: Secrets and Serpents
by Faykan
Summary: Rejoin Harry Potter and friends as they unravel the strange set of attacks that plague Hogwarts, while Albus Dumbledore grows curious about the black haired boy who had befriended our hero. - Coverart by cat-cat on Deviantart
1. Prologue

**Welcome to the next installment of A New Player! Just wanted to shout out to everyone who reviewed during the first book, Thank you! Your reviews were as a shining pilliar of hope when i ran low on the spark of imagination. Needless to say, REVIEW PEOPLE! Seriously, I mean it, give me your thoughts, fill the void with the sound of ringing comments, even if its just to say "Hey idiot, you messed 'this' up". Trust me, I'm not a fragile little boy who has no self esteem; I am a cold calculated Slytherin through and through. If you do actually manage to insult me, however unlikly, I will simply hunt you down at a later date. On another note, I am still human, I do make mistakes, please feel free to point it out as bluntly as you feel nessesary. You know you want to! without further ado, I am pleased to present:**

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><p><strong>New Player Year 2<strong>**: ****Secrets and Speakers**

**Prolog****ue**

**Return to Privet Drive**

"Oh by the way, let me handle the Dursleys, there are going to be some pretty big changes this summer." Faykan told Harry as they reached the door of number four Privet drive, and rang the doorbell. The door opened a crack, revealing the long face of Harry's Aunt Petunia. She tried to slam the door in the boys' faces, but Faykan had slid his foot into the gap and with a shove, sent the door crashing open.

With a maniacal grin splitting his face, Faykan led Harry into the Dursleys' home, looking down at Petunia who had fallen to the ground in her attempt to keep the door closed. "Hello, Dursley. Were back for the summer." He said snidely. Aunt Petunia couldn't respond, she was too stunned that a mere twelve year old boy had managed to force the door open.

Unfortunately for her, neither Faykan nor Harry were mere boys, they were wizards. Wizards who had just returned from their first year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

As Faykan, whom the Dursleys only knew at Piter De Vries, a name he had created for himself, walked into the living room of number four, Dudley Dursley, who had been watching the telly, gaped at him while Vernon Dursley rose from him chair in a towering rage. "How dare you come back here with your _freakishness_!" he said in an icy voice, trying to be as intimidating as possible.

"Silence!" Faykan thundered in response; and the entire room seemed to darken as the boy spoke. "Harry Potter shall continue to reside here during the summers Dursley, and no one shall stop him. He shall be treated as a human being, given an actual room, sufficient food three times a day, and so help me, if I hear otherwise I shall bring this house down around your ears. Do I make myself clear Dursley?" Uncle Vernon could only stare in utter horror as the boy in front of him seemed to glow with unbridled power, and sending small items flying around the room.

Finally, sending Vernon a final glare, Faykan stormed up the stairs to Dudley's second bedroom, Harry right behind him carrying his trunk. As they entered, Harry noted the massive amount of broken and unused toys that filled the room. Faykan simple shook his head in sadness, and pulled from his right sleeve his wand, a pale Elm wand blacked in some places from the fire that had burnt most of the boy's body earlier that month.

"Faykan," Harry said suddenly as he saw the wand, "We're not allowed to use magic outside of school…"

Faykan turned and smiled at Harry, "The ministry had far better things to do than try and monitor my magic Harry…" he said dismissivly.

Faykan then proceeded to vanish or repair everything in the room, leaving it looking nearly pristine for Harry's use. Meanwhile Harry unpacked his trunk, stowing his cloths in the wardrobe so they wouldn't wrinkle and piling his spell books, quills, ink and wand onto the desk Faykan repaired from being lopsided. Hedwig's cage went next to the window, with its door open so she could come and go as she pleased.

When he was finally finished, Faykan turned to watch as Harry placed his Nimbus Two Thousand broomstick on a shelf above the writing desk.

"Well, Harry that should take care of your relatives for the summer holidays. I'll write you often, but I'm going to be away for a bit while I take care of some family business. I should be back to pick you up around your birthday to take you to the Weasleys for the rest of the summer." Faykan said turning to the door.

"Fay," Harry said and his best friend turned back, "Thanks, for everything I mean,"

"You're very much welcome Harry."

And with that, Faykan strode down the stairs, shot a death glare at the Dursleys, and was out the door. Harry settled down on his new bed, in his new room and he couldn't be happier. Sure he was stuck with the Dursley for the rest of the month, but he would survive, especially with their fear of Faykan demolishing their house if they mistreated Harry.

'Yes' Harry thought 'things were defiantly going to be different here from now on.'

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	2. Chapter 1

**Review Please****. Its not that difficult, several seconds to jot down your thoughts, come on!**

**Chapter One**

**The Weasley Home**

Draco Malfoy was sitting in library of Malfoy Manor, reading one of the several books his godfather Severus Snape had sent his to help with his studies for the next school year when the fireplace roared with emerald green flames. Looking up from his book, Draco saw his friend, Faykan Undol, step through the flames, brushing soot off his dark blue robes and sporting a giant grin.

"Hey Draco." He said walking towards his friend.

Draco raised his eyebrows, no one was able to Floo directly into Malfoy Manor unless they were keyed into the wards or had been invited by someone of the Malfoy bloodline. Faykan was always full of these kinds of surprises, so Draco simple presumed that his family had to have been keyed into the wards at one time or another. "Hello Fay," he responded finally, watching as the Gryffindor boy walked to the door and snapped his fingers, summoning a house elf.

Dobby appeared, bowing low to the guest and Faykan asked the elf to bring Lucius, Draco's father. The elf disappeared with a pop and Faykan turned to sit in a chair opposite Draco.

"So, what brings you here today Fay?" Draco finally asked after marking his place in the book.

"I'm staying for the month." Faykan replied bluntly, grinning at Draco's look of surprise. But at that moment Lucius Malfoy strode in, took one fleeting look at Faykan, turned to speak to Draco, and then took a double take.

"Hello, Uncle Lucius," Faykan said calmly as Lucius studied the boy. Draco could scarcely believe his ears, 'Uncle Lucius...' could it be true that his good friend could actually be related to him?

"Who are you child?" Lucius asked, his face perfectly calm, but Draco could see the gears spinning in high speed, trying to sort out the puzzle of this boy he had apparently never seen before.

"Faykan Undol, Uncle, you remember my father don't you, you and he were in the same year at Hogwarts. He presided your wedding to Miss. Narcissa Black."

Lucius' eye widened with recognition and he actually smiled, Draco could tell it was genuine, as he sized up the son of his close friend, allegedly. "I wasn't aware;" he began coolly, "That Faykan the seventh had had any children."

"Yes, he was rather a private person my father, a trait Draco will attest that he passed on to me." Faykan replied beaming.

"So, what brings you to our home, Mr. Undol?" Lucius asked quickly replacing his mask of indifference that Draco knew so well.

"I wish to request if I might abide in your humble home for the next few weeks while I work out the final business of my inheritance from my parent's tragic deaths." Faykan said solemnly. "I also would like to reacquire the family records and other personal items my father left with you before he died, if you would indulge me."

Lucius inclined his head slightly, "Of course," he said, "Dobby shall make sure you have everything you need, your room will be across the hall from Draco's," he added looking at Draco, who nodded back.

With that his father left from the room and Faykan turned back to Draco smiling softly, "Well, that was painless, don't you agree?"

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Faykan spent most of his days in Malfoy Manor going over the items that had belonged to his parents. Draco tagged along because he was curious about his 'cousin', but for the most part Faykan would store the items Dobby brought to him in his large, multicompartmentalized trunk, or he spent time writing letters (Draco presumed they mainly were to Harry, Ron and Hermione) or pouring over the records Lucius brought to him his first night.

A few times Faykan had allowed Draco to look at some of the lines of ancestors of the different pureblood families, but none of the information made a lot of sense to Draco, as he couldn't reference the information with anything he was familiar with, the records were of the early middle ages, which most families hadn't been able to chart back to. Faykan took great amounts of time personally filling in lines where his record was incomplete from both Malfoy and Black family records, with Lucius' permission. Finally on July thirtieth, Faykan bid farewell to the Malfoys and took his leave, disappearing into the Floo network. When Draco opened the book he had been reading the day Faykan left, he found a handwritten note by his friend:

'_Kairan Telcontar & __Aethodry __Black: F.A. 78'_

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

On the whole, Harry was having the first good summer with the Dursleys he could ever remember. Given they were ignoring him as much as possible, and only interacted with him at meal times, but Harry couldn't care less about that. Harry spent as much time as he could in his room, finishing his summer homework for his teachers and responding to letters he received from Ron, Hermione and Faykan almost every other day. Faykan told him that he was spending some time with Draco and that he sent his greetings, explaining that he couldn't write to him because it would be disastrous if his father found out. Harry understood, and responded that he didn't fault Draco for his father.

The night before his birthday, Harry was sitting at the dinner table with the Dursleys, when the door opened and Faykan walked in. All three Dursleys froze; panic evident in their eyes, but Faykan ignored them and sat down in the spare chair next to Harry. "Evening Harry, everything going well I hope?" he said cheerily.

Harry nodded, his mouth full of mash potatoes, and Faykan smiled at the Dursleys, "See, I knew you could behave yourselves, as a reward I'll be taking Harry away to our friend Ron's house for the rest of the summer. Expect Harry to return next summer for about the same amount of time, come on Harry lets go make sure you're packed for Hogwarts."

They left the Dursleys at the table, still stunned, and went upstairs. Harry packed his things while Faykan sent Hedwig with a letter to Ron to expect them within hours of her arrival, and stopped Harry when he was about to pack his broom. "You'll be needing that Harry, were flying to the Burrow."

"The Burrow?" Harry asked puzzled.

"Ron's house." Faykan replied, unshrinking his own broom, a model Harry didn't recognize. It was completely black with no markings or decorations whatsoever.

Faykan shrunk Harry's trunk and Hedwig's cage and Harry pocketed them. They then trouped outside, past the Dursleys still motionless forms, and out into the backyard where they mounted their brooms and kicked off, soaring over the clouds and into the night.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

After what seemed like hours of flying through the clouds, Faykan started angling his broom for a decent. Harry was thankful that they were almost at Ron's; his hands were numb from the frigid night air. As they passed below the cloudbank, Harry could see a dark patchwork of fields and clumps of trees. "Not much farther now," Faykan shouted over the roaring wind as it whipped past their speeding brooms.

Finally Harry could see a large building with four or five chimneys in the distance. Faykan put on a boost of speed to his broom and Harry had no trouble keeping up. They finally landed in the small yard, scattering several chickens in the early dawn light. As the two boys marched up to the front door, Harry noticed the lopsided sign stuck in the ground near the entrance that read, _'The Burrow'_. Around the front door lay a jumble of rubber boots and a very rusty cauldron Harry almost tripped over due to the numbness of his limbs. Faykan shrunk his broom, pocketed it, and finally knocked briskly on the door before pushing it open and motioning for Harry to enter.

Harry entered a rather small kitchen with a scrubbed wooden table a chairs in the middle of the room. Harry couldn't help but look around in wonder, having never been in a wizarding house before. The clock on the wall opposite him had only one hand and no numbers at all. Written around the edge were things like:_ 'Time to make tea'_, _'Time to feed the chickens'_, and _'You're late'_. Books were stacked three deep on the mantelpiece, books with titles like _'Charm Your Own Cheese'_, _'Enchantment in Baking'_, and _'One Minute Feasts - It's Magic!'_

Just as Harry and Faykan made their way to a large uneven and winding staircase, the short plump form of Mrs. Weasley appeared at the bottom, smiling at the two boys with her arms held out wide. "I'm very pleased to see you, Harry, dear," she said pulling him into an embrace. Turning to Faykan, she repeated the motion, drawing the small thin boy into her arms despite his obvious reluctance. "Oh Faykan, dear, you needn't be shy here. Thank you for taking the trouble of getting Harry here on such short notice," she turned back to Harry, "We were going to pick you up ourselves in two weeks, but Faykan offered to get you before your birthday and well, we couldn't say no to having a party here for you."

Harry blushed at the mention of a party. "You really needn't do…" he began but Mrs. Weasley brushed him off, "But we'd be delighted to Harry, Ron told us how your relatives treated you until you came to Hogwarts, and it just kills me to think that you hadn't even had a proper birthday, but never mind that right now, come along and I'll whip up some breakfast." She said as she herded both boys back into the kitchen. They sat at the table and waited as she bustled around, putting eggs and sausages into a frying pan.

After a few moments the wonderful smell of food was wafting throughout the house, and the other residents started to stir. The first to arrive were the twins, Fred and George, who smiled widely when they saw Harry and Faykan, "Look who arrived bright and early this morning," Mrs. Weasley cheerfully called to Ron who came down minutes later, while she was tipping eight or nine sausages onto both Harry's and Faykan's plates. Moments later she was adding three large fried eggs for each boy, muttering to herself about how dreadfully thin they both were.

Faykan looked like he was going to mention that they were perfectly normal sizes for their age, but at that moment there was a diversion in the form of a small, redheaded figure in a long nightdress, who appeared in the kitchen, gave a small squeal, and ran out again.

"Ginny," said Ron in an undertone to Harry. "My sister; she's been talking about you all summer."

After Faykan and Harry had waded through their fourth helpings, as Mrs. Weasley insisted on them eating as much as they possibly could, the door opened and the thin, balding Mr. Weasley walked in, "Morning Weasleys," he called, and he sat down at the table amidst the responses of "morning dad," from his sons. "What a night," he mumbled, groping for the teapot. "Nine raids. Nine! And old Mundungus Fletcher tried to put a hex on me when I had my back turned..." Mr. Weasley took a long gulp of tea, sighed, and looked around the table, finally settling his eyes on the Faykan and Harry, "Ah, hello there Faykan, and this must be Harry Potter, Very pleased to meet you, Ron's told us so much about you of course." he said holding his hand out for Harry to shake. Fred then asked him about the raids he was on and Mr. Weasley dived into the details, allowing Ron, Faykan, and Harry to excuse themselves and head up the stairs to Ron's room, which they would all be sharing.

They all climbed the five flights of stairs until they reached a door with peeling paint and a small plaque on it, declaring _'Ronald's Room'_. They stepped in, and were assaulted by the color orange immediately, Faykan staggered back and almost fell down the stairs so violent and plentiful was the color in the room. Harry realized that Ron had covered every inch of the wallpaper with posters of the same seven people, all wearing bright orange robes carrying broomstick and waving energetically.

"Your Quidditch team?" Harry said, predicting the answer.

"The Chudley Cannons," said Ron, pointing at the orange bedspread, which was emblazoned with two giant black C's and a speeding cannonball. "Ninth in the league."

"Orange much?" Faykan said finally getting to his feet and adjusting to the dramatic color change as he entered the room, but Ron simply shrugged, clearly it was a color he was used to by now.

"It's a bit small," said Ron quickly. "Not like that room you had with the Muggles. And I'm right underneath the ghoul in the attic; he's always banging on the pipes and groaning..."

But Harry, grinning widely, said, "This is the best house I've ever been in."

Ron's ears went pink at the compliment.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

That evening, Harry was led blindfolded into the Weasley's kitchen, and was surprised to find that it had been completely decorated in gold and red balloons and streamers, the table was covered in a scarlet tablecloth with a giant chocolate cake in the center that read: _'Happy Birthday Harry Potter: 12'_ in white icing letters. All of the Weasleys and Faykan were seated around the table grinning broadly at Harry, leaving one place open, directly in front of the cake. As Mrs. Weasley lit the candles with her wand, everyone sang Happy Birthday to Harry as loudly as they could.

Harry only had a handful of presents, but he didn't care. Faykan had given Harry a sleeve holster for his wand that he said was enchanted to only be removable by Harry himself, Hermione had sent him a broom care and maintenance kit by owl, with a card wishing him the best birthday, and Ron gave him a large stack of Chocolate Frogs. Harry couldn't have been happier. As he drifted off to sleep in Ron's room that night, while listening to the breathing of his two best friends, he couldn't imagine life being any more wonderful.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Over the next few weeks, Harry learned that life at the Burrow was as different as possible from life on Privet Drive. The Dursleys liked everything neat and ordered; the Weasleys' house burst with the strange and unexpected. Harry got quite a shock from the talking mirror that commented on the tidiness of the person's appearance, while Faykan almost fell out an open window when the ghoul in the attic first starting howling and banging pipes around. Small explosions from Fred and George's bedroom were also apparently considered perfectly normal.

By far the strangest thing for Harry was the fact that he was surrounded by people who seemed to like him. Mrs. Weasley fussed over the state of his socks and tried to force him and Faykan, who she was much less successful with, to eat fourth helpings at every meal. Mr. Weasley liked Harry to sit next to him at the dinner table so that he could bombard him with questions about life with Muggles, asking him to explain how things like plugs and the postal service worked, constantly saying how ingenious they were to have found so many different ways of getting along without magic.

Harry heard from Hogwarts one sunny morning about a week after he and Faykan had arrived at the Burrow. He, Faykan and Ron went down to breakfast to find Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Ginny already sitting at the kitchen table. The moment she saw Harry, Ginny accidentally knocked her porridge bowl to the Floor with a loud clatter. Ginny clearly seemed very prone to knocking things over whenever Harry entered a room, however he never said anything. She dived under the table to retrieve the bowl and emerged with her face glowing like the setting sun. Pretending he hadn't noticed this, Harry sat down and took the toast Mrs. Weasley offered him.

"Letters from school," said Mr. Weasley, passing the three boys identical envelopes of yellowish parchment, addressed in green ink. "Dumbledore already knows you're here, Harry, he doesn't miss a trick, that man." Faykan sniggered slightly, but covered it with a cough. "You two've got them, too," he added, as Fred and George ambled in, still in their pajamas.

For a few minutes there was silence as they all read their letters. Harry's told him to catch the Hogwarts Express as usual from King's Cross station on September first. There was also a list of the new books he'd need for the coming year.

_SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS WILL REQUIRE:_

_The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk_

_Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart_

_Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart_

_Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart_

_Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart_

_Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart_

_Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart_

_Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart_

Fred commented on how they were all assigned to buy all the books written by Lockhart and how the new Defense Against the Darks Arts must be a female fan of his. George also added that the books were very expensive.

Looking worried, Mrs. Weasley responded, "Well just have to manage. I expect that we'll be able to pick up a lot of Ginny's things secondhand."

"Oh, are you starting at Hogwarts this year?" Harry asked Ginny.

She nodded, blushing to the roots of her flaming hair, and put her elbow in the butter dish. Fortunately no one saw this except Harry, because just then Ron's elder brother Percy walked in. He was already dressed, his Hogwarts prefect badge pinned to his sweater vest. After breakfast, Harry, Ron, Fred, George and Faykan all went up the hill to a small paddock the Weasleys owned. Since it was surrounded by trees that blocked the view from the village nearby it allowed them to play Quidditch as long as they didn't fly too high. Since they didn't want to risk uneasy explanations they threw apples around instead of using real Quidditch balls, each taking turns on Harry's Nimbus Two Thousand except for Faykan, who used his own broom that he had flown to the Burrow.

As he resized it and mounted, Fred looked up and down the black handle of the broomstick, he let out a whistle, "Whoa Fay, is that what I think that is?" Faykan returned a look that seemed to affirm Fred's question, and said, "That depends, if you think it's a custom built broom, then yes it is." All four other boys whistled in amazement, custom brooms were very rare and generally better than anything on the market, given the spell work of the creator.

As they marched up the hill, Fred and George were discussing Percy and his strange behavior over the summer, hoping against hope that he wouldn't turn out to be another head boy, like their eldest brother Bill. As the conversation turned to how they were going to buy all their equipment for the next school year, Harry felt awkward, and he noticed Faykan turning slightly red. They both had large amounts of gold stored in Gringotts, and while Harry guessed that either of them would be more than happy to give any amount to the Weasley, Harry knew that they would never accept any charity offered from close friends.

Mrs. Weasley woke them all early the following Wednesday. After a quick half a dozen bacon sandwiches each, they pulled on their coats and Mrs. Weasley took a flowerpot off the kitchen mantelpiece and peered inside.

"We're running low, Arthur," she sighed. "We'll have to buy some more today... Ah well, guests first! After you, Harry dear!"

Harry stared dumbly as she offered him the flowerpot. Before he could say anything, Faykan stepped forward and took a pinch of the powder inside, "Come on Harry, I'll show you how travel by Floo powder works," he said guiding Harry to step into the fireplace.

"Ok, all you need to do is close your eyes, tuck your arms in at your sides and simply speak clearly the name of your destination, in this case Diagon Alley, then you throw the powder down. Got it?" Harry nodded and Faykan held his hand up and waited. "Diagon Alley." Harry said loudly as Faykan threw the powder at Harry's feet. With a roar, the fire turned emerald green and rose higher than Harry's head and he felt as though he was being sucked down a giant drain.

Moments later, Harry stumbled out of the fireplace of the Leaky Cauldron; and almost fell to the floor as his head was still spinning madly. Moments later, the fireplace behind him roared into life again, and Faykan stepped through gracefully.

"Easy enough Harry?" he asked.

"I think I still prefer brooms." Harry responded making Faykan laugh.

"Yeah, it's not my favorite way to travel either." He commented as the Weasleys poured one by one out of the fireplace.

After making sure they were all present and accounted for, Mrs. Weasley led them all into the back courtyard that contained the hidden entrance to Diagon Alley. Tapping the third brick up and second across from the bins with her wand, she opened the archway and guided them all towards the marble building of Gringotts Wizarding Bank. They met the Grangers inside, and while Mr. Weasley chatted with Mr. and Mrs. Granger, Mrs. Weasley took Ron, Faykan and Harry down to get money for their supplies.

The vaults were reached by means of small, goblin-driven carts that sped along miniature train tracks through the bank's underground tunnels. Harry enjoyed the breakneck journey down to the Weasleys' vault, but felt dreadful when it was opened. There was a very small pile of silver Sickles inside, and just one gold Galleon. Mrs. Weasley felt right into the corners before sweeping the whole lot into her bag. Before they left, there was a loud bang behind them, and everyone spun to see what it was. As they turned back after seeing that it was just a cart speeding by, they noticed that there were some more silver sickles and three gold galleons that Mrs. Weasley seemed to have missed, even though they were in the middle of the vault, "That's odd, I was sure that we didn't have that much money," she commented, but still scooped the rest into her bag. Harry, saw Faykan's face glowing slightly, and knew exactly what he had done for the family that had treated them like two of their own. He still felt bad when they reached his vault. He tried to block the contents from view as he hastily shoved handfuls of gold coins into a leather bag. When they reached Faykan's vault however, there was no hiding the fact that he was very wealthy; he simply refused to look at anyone as he piled Galleons into his bag.

Stopping to look at a few of the objects on the back shelves, Harry noticed a spherical shaped object wrapped in a black cloth, a large sword in a jeweled scabbard, a red leather bound book, and what seemed like several glowing jewels and trinkets that shinned with inner lights. Faykan pulled a small journal sized book off the shelf and then left, letting the goblin close the door behind them. The entire journey back up Faykan refused to look at any of the Weasleys, clearly embarrassed that he was far better off then them, not that anyone commented on the subject. Harry felt similar, but he knew that Faykan must have felt extra miserable because he could have made their lives easier without making even the slightest dent in his own funds, not that the Weasleys would allow him to.

Back outside on the marble steps, they all separated. Percy muttered vaguely about needing a new quill. Fred and George had spotted their friend from Hogwarts, Lee Jordan. Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were going to a secondhand robe shop. Mr. Weasley was insisting on taking the Grangers off to the Leaky Cauldron for a drink.

"We'll all meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour to buy your schoolbooks," said Mrs. Weasley, setting off with Ginny. "And not one step down Knockturn Alley!" she shouted at the twins' retreating backs.

Harry, Ron, Faykan, and Hermione strolled off along the winding, cobbled street. The bag of gold in Harry's pocket seemed to scream to him to be spent, so he bought the four of them large ice creams, which they all slurped happily as they wandered the alley, stopping to look in several windows here and there. Faykan seemed to still be sulking about Gringotts until Harry nudged him painfully in the ribs and sent him a look that said 'pull yourself together, you did what you could'. The boy seemed to cheer up slightly, but Harry could tell he wasn't going to let this thing go easily.

After an hour of wandering the shops, purchasing the things they would need for their second year at Hogwarts, the four Gryffindors headed for Flourish and Blotts. They were by no means the only ones making their way to the bookshop. As they approached it, they saw to their surprise a large crowd jostling out side the doors, trying to get in. The reason for this was proclaimed on a large banner across the upper windows:

_GILDEROY LOCKHART_

_will be signing copies of his autobiography_

_MAGICAL ME_

_today 12:30 P.m. to 4:30 P.m._

"We can actually meet him!" Hermione squealed. "I mean, he's written almost the whole booklist!" Faykan looked like he wanted nothing to do with the man, but thankfully he held his peace.

They squeezed inside, dragging Faykan along as he complained loudly about being forced inside. A long line wound right to the back of the shop, where Gilderoy Lockhart was signing his books. They each grabbed a copy of _'The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2'_ and sneaked up the line to where the rest of the Weasleys were standing with Mr. and Mrs. Granger.

"Oh, there you are, good," said Mrs. Weasley. She sounded breathless and kept patting her hair. "We'll be able to see him in a minute…"

Gilderoy Lockhart came slowly into view, seated at a table surrounded by large pictures of his own face, all winking and flashing dazzlingly white teeth at the crowd. The real Lockhart was wearing robes of forget-me-not blue that exactly matched his eyes; his pointed wizard's hat was set at a jaunty angle on his wavy hair.

Faykan looked like he was ready to burst out laughing at Lockhart as a short, irritable-looking man was dancing around taking photographs with a large black camera that emitted puffs of purple smoke with every blinding flash.

"Out of the way, there," he snarled at Faykan, moving back to get a better shot. "This is for the Daily Prophet…" but he never got to finish as Faykan snapped at him, shoving the man back.

"Big deal!" he yelled at the man, rubbing his foot where the photographer had stepped on it.

Gilderoy Lockhart heard the commotion. He looked up, first seeing Faykan and then finally noticing Harry. He stared for several moments, and then he leapt to his feet and positively shouted, "It can't be Harry Potter?"

The crowd parted, whispering excitedly; Lockhart dived forward, seized Harry's arm and pulled him to the front, positioning them both for the photographer several times. Faykan finally pried Harry away from Lockhart's grip, looking ready to melt the next person to look him in the eyes. The photographer foolishly tried to steal Harry back for one more picture, but Faykan had had enough: He shoved the short photographer back roughly and the man yelped as his camera glowed white hot and clattered to the floor.

Lockhart seemed oblivious to what was happening directly in front of him, and he addressed the crowd of people in the bookstore.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said loudly, waving for quiet. "What an extraordinary moment this is! The perfect moment for me to make a little announcement I've been sitting on for some time!"

"When young Harry here stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, he only wanted to buy my autobiography, which I shall be happy to present him now, free of charge," The crowd applauded again. "He had no idea," Lockhart continued, "that he would shortly be getting much, much more than my book, Magical Me. He and his schoolmates will, in fact, be getting the real magical me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September; I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"

The crowd cheered and clapped and Harry found himself being presented with the entire works of Gilderoy Lockhart. Staggering slightly under their weight, he managed to make his way out of the limelight to the edge of the room, where Ginny was standing next to her new cauldron.

Harry could tell that Faykan was still seething under his calm demeanor at the lunacy of the entire situation that had just happened.

"Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?" said a voice Harry had no trouble recognizing. He straightened up and found himself face to face with Draco Malfoy, who was grinning madly. "Famous Harry Potter can't even go into a bookshop without making a scene." When he reached them, he finally broke out into good natured chuckles, which Harry and Faykan returned. They were about to exit the store when Mr. Weasley called to them, and at the same time, Lucius Malfoy arrived right behind his son, sneering down at the Weasleys and Harry.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" he drawled, looking from Ron to Ginny. "Let's, see. Red hair, vacant expressions, second hand books, you must be the Weasleys." He said coldly, picking up one of Ginny's books out of her cauldron. Harry noticed that Draco was purposely looking away with what he could only guess as shame creeping behind his own expressionless mask. As Mr. Weasley sidled through the crowd toward them, Lucius turned his attention to him. "Ah Weasley senior." He drawled.

"Lucius Malfoy." Mr. Weasley retorted.

"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear," said Mr. Malfoy. "All those raids... I hope they're paying you overtime? But judging from this…" he added, holding up Ginny's beat up second hand book.

"Hello again, Mr. Malfoy," Faykan suddenly piped up, distracting the older wizard as he turned to address the young boy. "Ah, Mr. Undol how are you this afternoon." He said in an oddly pleasant voice, so opposed to the coldness he had shown to the Weasleys. "I've been better," Faykan responded. "Would it be possible for you to return that book back so we may leave this overly… gaudy… place sir?" he asked, shooting an angry glace back towards Lockhart. Mr. Malfoy simply nodded and shoved the book back into Ginny's cauldron without a word to her, and left with Draco trailing behind him immediately afterward.

Harry, Faykan, the Grangers, and the Weasleys left not too soon after, as Lockhart was heard saying that the incident with Faykan and the photographer was staged as a publicity stunt, and Faykan looked like he wanted nothing more than to reduce the entire shop and everyone in it to ashes at his words. They made their way back to the Leaky Cauldron, Faykan being dragged by Fred and George as he struggled violently in their grips.

_**Review!**_


	3. Chapter 2

**Thank you to those who reviewed Chapter One! Please continue to review, as it is a major source of my motivation to continued writing. Also, new poll on my profile, results WILL influence the events in the story, so go and express your opnion!**

**Chapter Two**

**Flight to Hogwarts**

The rest of the summer was incredibly tense at the Burrow, due to Faykan. Anyone mentioning Lockhart being the new Defense teacher would be sent an angry stare from the boy, and one time small objects were thrown across the room by his magic. Harry was hoping that his best friend would finally be able to relax when they reached Hogwarts, but afraid at the same time what close proximity to Lockhart would do.

On their last evening, Mrs. Weasley conjured up a sumptuous dinner that included all of Harry's favorite things, ending with a mouthwatering treacle pudding. Fred and George rounded off the evening with a display of Filibuster fireworks; they filled the kitchen with red and blue stars that bounced from ceiling to wall for at least half an hour. Then it was time for a last mug of hot chocolate and bed.

It seemed to take an extremely long time for everyone to get started the next morning. Despite them all getting out of bed at dawn, the shear amount of things to do had them dashing about till the very last minute. Mrs. Weasley was in a towering temper, people kept constantly colliding with each other on the stairs, many of them half dressed with bits of breakfast in their hands; and Mr. Weasley nearly broke his neck tripping over a stray chicken as he crossed the yard carrying Ginny's trunk to the Weasley's Ford Anglia. The only person who was immune to the chaos appeared to be Faykan, who had had the foresight to pack the night before, leaving only the things he would need that morning out.

Harry had no idea how the nine people, seven trunks, two owls, and a rat were going to fit into the very small car. Faykan had sent his raven, Roac, to fly ahead to Hogwarts the night before saying that his familiar hated confined spaces. Harry had assumed, of course, that the car was completely non magical. Mr. Weasley just gave Harry a wink as he opened the trunk, revealing that it had been magically expanded so that the luggage fit easily inside. After they had all piled into the car, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley in the front with Ginny, while Harry, Faykan, Ron, Fred, George, and Percy were all sitting comfortable in the back side by side, Mrs. Weasley glanced around at the interior of the car. "Muggles do know more than we give them credit for, don't they. I mean, you'd never know it was this roomy from the outside, would you?"

They finally got to King's Cross at a quarter to eleven, as people kept stopping them from leaving to retrieve forgotten items, and they almost dashed into the station. Mrs. Weasley sent Percy into the illusionary barrier between platforms nice and ten first, followed by Mr. Weasley, Fred and George. "I'll take Ginny and you three come right after us," Mrs. Weasley told the three second year boys, grabbing Ginny's hand and setting off. In the blink of an eye they were gone.

Harry and Ron attempted to pass the barrier together, but they crashed headlong into a seemingly solid wall right where the barrier was supposed to be. Thankfully Faykan had warned them to look casual, so they hadn't run at full speed, which had prevented their carts from rebounding heavily against the sealed barrier. A few people looked over at the heard the small crash, but lost interest as there was very little damage done. "Why can't we get through?" Harry hissed to Ron. Faykan ran his hands over the barrier, muttering some spell in his strange language that neither of the other Gryffindor boys could understand.

Finally, Faykan had to give up, turned to face his friends and shrugged in defeat. "We're going to miss the train," Ron whispered. "I don't understand why the gateway's sealed itself." Harry looked worriedly to a clock on the wall. It read two minutes past eleven; they had missed the train. "It's gone," said Ron, sounding stunned. "The train's left, how are we going to get to Hogwarts?"

"If the barrier is sealed, how are your parents going to get back through to us?" Harry asked Ron worry evident of his face. "Oh, they'd just apparate; you know, disappear and reappear to where they want. The only reason the use stuff like Floo powder and the car is because we can't apparate yet."

Faykan's eye widened, "Harry, Ron, the car!"

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The three boys made their way out of the station through the crowds of muggles, buffered on either side by the press of people. They turned down the side road where the Ford Anglia sat waiting, and Ron unlocked it with a series of taps from his wand. Faykan shrunk their trunks and pocketed them, while Harry placed Hedwig and Scabbers in the back seat.

Finally all three boys piled into the front, Harry in the middle with Ron driving. "Check that no one's watching," said Ron, starting the ignition with another tap of his wand. Harry watched Faykan stick his head out of the window, and he finally declared that the way was clear. Ron pushed a tiny, silver button on the dashboard, and they, their familiars, and the car vanished from sight. Harry could still feel the seat as it vibrated, hear the engine, but he could see nothing around him. It was slightly discomforting.

"Let's go," the voice of Ron said to Harry's right. The car lifted off, and they went soaring into the sky. Before they made it into the cloud cover, there was a popping noise and the car, with everything in it, reappeared suddenly. Ron pounded the button, muttering about how the booster was faulty, and after a few seconds they re-disappeared. After they made it into the clouds, the invisibility booster shorted again, but it made no difference to the three boys, so they left the button alone. Staring at the solid mass of grey clouds surrounding them Harry finally asked, "Now what?"

"Well, we need to head north until we find the train," Faykan replied, and Ron pushed the accelerator, shooting them forward as he aligned the car to the dashboard compass. After a short while, they dipped below the clouds to find the Hogwarts Express making its way along the ground like a scarlet snake. "Well, all we've got to worry about now are airplanes," said Ron. The three of the broke out into fits of laughter, and for a while none of them could stop.

Many hours later, after the enjoyment of flying to Hogwarts had abated, as the car quickly turn out to be very hot, and all three boys were sweating profusely, even after removing their sweaters. "Can't be much father, can it?" Ron finally said, his voice cracking with thirst; they hadn't thought to bring anything to drink. "Why couldn't we get onto the platform?" Harry finally asked. "I have an idea, but…" Faykan began, but at that moment the engine had begun to whine. "It's probably just tired," said Ron. "It's never been this far before"

The three boys ignored the ever increasing whining from the car as the sky grew darker. Faykan crawled into the backseat, unshrunk their trunks one at a time, and pulled out a set of robes for each of them, each of them taking a turn driving while the others got dressed in the back seat. Faykan finally reshrunk the trunks and returned them to his robe's pocket.

Finally a familiar sight greeted them as they descended below the clouds; the castle of Hogwarts loomed before them, high turrets looking like spikes rising into the sky. Unfortunately the car began to shudder and was losing speed, "Come on," Ron said cajolingly, shaking the steering wheel a bit, "we're nearly there, come on…" As they glided over the black lake, the engine finally gave out with a loud clunk and splutter. "Oh, no…" Ron said. The nose of the car dropped. They were falling, gathering speed, heading straight for the solid castle wall. Ron screamed, twisting the steering wheel around; they missed the dark stone wall by inches as the car turned in a giant arc, soaring over the greenhouses, the vegetable patch, and finally over the black lawns, all the while losing altitude.

Ron released the steering wheel and whipped out his wand, attempting to command the car to halt with various whacks from his wand, when Harry bellowed for him to avoid a quickly upcoming tree, but far too late for Ron to turn the car. With an earsplitting bang of metal on wood, they crashed headlong into the limbs of the tree.

Harry looked up from where he had hit the dashboard, now sporting a golf ball sized lump on his head, while Faykan was bleeding profusely from his now broken nose. Ron let out a low, despairing moan as he held up his broken wand, the two pieces of wood held together barely by a thin string of unicorn hair. Faykan moved to open his door and jump out, just as something smashed into his door with the force of a bull, knocking him into Harry and splattering more blood over the three boys.

Harry looked down at Faykan, who appeared to have been knocked unconscious from the force of the blow, and was now bleeding from several more cuts on his face and arms. "What happened?" Harry asked when Ron gasped, and they looked out the cracked windshield to see a branch as thick as a python collide into it, buckling the front of the car slightly. The tree they were stuck in was flailing madly with its limbs, attacking the car viciously. Harry and Ron screamed as the branches started to pound fiercely onto all sides of the car, shattering windows and denting the metal.

"We're done for!" Ron moaned as the ceiling sagged, but suddenly the floor of the car was vibrating; the engine had restarted. "Reverse!" Harry yelled, and the car shot backward; falling out of the tree as it attempted to crush them; they could hear its roots creaking as it almost ripped itself up, lashing out at them as they finally sped out of reach.

"That," panted Ron, "was close. Well done, car…"

The car, however, had reached the end of its tether. With two sharp clunks, the doors flew open and Harry felt his seat tip sideways: Next thing he knew he was sprawled on the damp ground with Faykan's body on top of him. Hedwig's cage flew through the air and burst open; she rose out of it with an angry screech and sped off toward the castle without a backward look. Then, dented, scratched, and steaming, the car rumbled off into the darkness, its rear lights blazing angrily, as Ron yelled after it.

"Can you believe our luck?" said Ron miserably, bending down to pick up Scabbers. "Of all the trees we could've hit, we had to get one that hits back."

"Come on," said Harry wearily, hefting Faykan, who was still unconscious, "we'd better get up to the school."

It wasn't at all the triumphant arrival Harry had pictured. Stiff, cold, and bruised, they seized both of Faykan's arms began half dragging, half carrying him up the grassy slope, toward the great oak front doors.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Professor Severus Snape was in a foul mood. Not only were Potter, Weasley, and Undol missing from the train, but rumor was that they were last seen flying an enchanted car towards Hogwarts, no doubt hoping to make a grand entrance amidst their cheering housemates.

Severus waited in a shadowy nook of the entrance all, pondering how he would best punish the three boys if they had been in his own house, expulsion aside. Potter was far too important to Dumbledore to be expelled, and Undol was a wild card to be watched, and obviously they couldn't expel Weasley and not the other too, as it would look far too suspicious. Personally, Severus would have had the boys in detention every single free hour of the school year for the idiocy they had showed, but sadly it was not for him to decide.

When the three boys finally entered, Severus knew something had clearly gone wrong. Potter and Weasley were bruised, cut and bleeding, and they both were supporting Undol, who was unmistakably unconscious with a face covered in blood. Forgoing his wish to punish them, Severus hurried out of the shadows to the boys and took Undol's weight onto his stronger body, ignoring the gasps of surprise that Potter and Weasley gave as he erupted from the shadows. "Follow me," he said coldly, and together they hurried up to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey was still at the feast, so Severus decided to heal the boys as best he could without her. Luckily their injuries weren't severe, and after a simple _episkey_ and several _scourgifys_, all three boys looked good as new, and Severus finally cast _renervate_ on Undol, bringing him back to consciousness. Groaning from the sudden awakening, Undol turned slightly and opened his eyes to find Severus bending over him, giving him a final examination to be absolutely positive that he was injury free. "Where am I?" he asked, squinting slightly as his eyes adjusted to the wand light that Severus was running over him. "In the Hospital wing, Mr. Undol." Severus replied slowly, letting the boy soak in the information. When the boy finally sat up in the bed Severus had placed him in, the Potions Master moved to face the three boys, glaring down at them. Potter and Weasley were staring at their feet, perfectly aware of how deep they were in this mess. "So," Severus said softly, "the train isn't good enough for the famous Harry Potter and his faithful sidekicks Undol and Weasley. Wanted to arrive with a bang, did we, boys?" Undol started to respond, but Severus cut him off, demanding to know what had happened to the car. They looked at him stunned, as if he had read their minds. Severus pulled the copy of the Evening Prophet and showing them the headline: _Flying Ford Anglia Mystifies Muggles._ He read the article to them aloud, finally looking up at their horrified faces as he finished. "You were seen," Severus hissed at them, "by no less that seven Muggles."

Severus then left them to stew in their fear as he fetched Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey, just in case there were any injuries he missed. When he had returned with them both in tow, none of the boys had moved. They seemed to have been frozen in fear of what was going to become of them.

Madam Pomfrey examined the three boys quickly, and after healing a few minor injuries that Severus had missed, mainly on Undol's arms and back, she left to return to the feast. Professor McGonagall finally stood to look at the three boys.

"Sit," she commanded, and both Potter and Weasley seated themselves quickly into chairs next to Undol's bed.

"Explain," she said, and the three boys launched into their story of how they were prevented from passing the barrier in King's Cross, decided that taking the car was their only option, and flew the entire distance to Hogwarts, finally crash landing into the Whomping Willow, which was the cause of their injuries.

"Why didn't you send us a letter by owl? I believe you have an owl?" Professor McGonagall said coldly to Potter when they had finished.

"We panicked," Undol said sullenly.

"That," said Professor McGonagall, "is obvious."

There was a knock on the hospital door and Severus opened it, revealing the Headmaster. Albus strode into the room, and all three boys froze again. Albus was looking unusually grave, and after a long silence, and he finally said, "Please explain why you did this." All three boys flinched at the disappointment in his voice, or at least appeared to flinch; Severus wasn't sure about Undol's sincerity. Severus watched as they repeated their story in detail for the Headmaster, and Weasley finally said that they would collect their things, assuming that they were going to be expelled. Albus assured him that they weren't going to be expelled today, as Severus knew would happen, and Albus said that he was going to write their families. 'A lot of good that will do,' Severus thought. With that, the Headmaster left, motioning for Severus to follow.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

After Professor McGonagall sentenced them to a detention each, as thankfully Harry persuaded her to not dock points from Gryffindor by stating that school hadn't officially started when they took the car, she left them with a plate of sandwiches and a jug of pumpkin juice that she summoned from the kitchens. They all ate as many as they could (the plate kept refilling itself) and finally rose to head to Gryffindor Tower, through the silent castle and up the stairs to the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Password?" she said as they approached.

"Err…" said Harry.

He then realized that they had not received the new password, but thankfully Hermione appeared, dashing around a corner toward them.

"There you are! Where have you been? The most ridiculous rumors; someone said you'd been expelled for crashing a flying car."

"Well, we haven't been expelled," Harry assured her.

"You're not telling me you did fly here?" said Hermione, sounding almost as severe as Professor McGonagall.

"Skip the lecture," said Ron impatiently, "and tell us the new password."

"It's 'wattlebird,'" said Hermione impatiently, "but that's not the point…"

Whatever the point was, they never heard, because when the Fat Lady's portrait opened, there was a sudden storm of clapping. The whole of Gryffindor House was still awake, and were packed into the common room waiting for Harry, Ron and Faykan to arrive. Arms reached through the portrait hole and pulled the boys inside, leaving Hermione behind to race after them. People were congratulating them for the inspired entrance they had made, and both Fred and George were jealous that they hadn't been invited to come with them. They were about to be swarmed by the rest of their house, when Faykan staggered, still weak from the amount of blood he had lost, despite the blood replenishment potions Professor Snape had given him. Harry and Ron used this as their excuse to escape up to their dormitories.

They hurried up the stairs, right to the top, and at last reached the door of their old dormitory, which now had a sign on it saying '_Second Years_'. They entered the familiar, circular room, with its six four-posters hung with red velvet and its high, narrow windows. Faykan returned their trunks from his pocket, and finally collapsed onto his bed, falling asleep immediately. Harry was about to get into bed himself, when the dormitory door flew open and in came the other second year Gryffindor boys, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, and Neville Longbottom. They spent the next twenty minutes retelling their story to their dorm mates, and finally were allowed to go to bed.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The enchanted sky of the Great Hall was a dull, cloudy gray as Draco sat down for breakfast. Draco was terrified for his friends when he hadn't seen them at the start of term feast, as he had heard the wildest rumors the night before; about Harry, Ron and Faykan being expelled for crashing a flying car into the Whomping Willow. When he saw his friends entering the Hall, his heart gave a relieving leap; they hadn't been expelled, probably.

The three Gryffindor boys sat down near Hermione at the Gryffindor table, and Draco was about to go ask them what happened, when the swirl of mail owls appeared, and Draco saw the Weasley family owl plunge into a milk jug near Ron. From the other side of the room, Draco could easily see the red envelope of a Howler. Longbottom said something to Ron, who looked white as a sheet as he slowly tore open the letter. The roar of Ron's mother's voice shook the Hall, causing dust to fall from the ceiling.

"RONALD WEASLEY! HOW DARE YOU STEAL THAT CAR, I AM ABSOLUTLY DISGUSTED! YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE!"

Mrs. Weasley's yells, a hundred times louder than usual, made the plates and spoons rattle on the table, and echoed deafeningly off the stone walls. People throughout the hall were swiveling around to see who had received the Howler, and Ron sank so low in his chair that only his head could be seen.

"WHEN WE RECEIVED THE LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS, YOU, HARRY AND FAYKAN COULD ALL HAVE DIED! YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, AND IT'S ENTIRLY YOUR FAULT! IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WELL BRING YOU STRAIGHT HOME!"

The ringing in Draco's ears finally subsided, while the red envelope burst into flames as Ron dropped it to the table. A few people laughed, namely Nott, but gradually the usual babble of talk broke out again.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry, Ron, Faykan and Hermione left the castle together, crossed the vegetable patch, and made for the greenhouses for double Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. At least the Howler had done one good thing: Hermione seemed to think they had now been punished enough and was being perfectly friendly again. They arrived to find the rest of the class awaiting Professor Sprout. Moments later, she came striding into view across the lawn, accompanied by Gilderoy Lockhart. Harry noticed that Faykan tensed immediately at the sight of the man, and put a hand on his shoulder, ready to restrain the smaller boy if he tried to lash out at the Defense Professor. Lockhart was immaculate in sweeping robes of turquoise, his golden hair shining under a perfectly positioned hat that matched his robes.

"Oh, hello there," he called, beaming around at the assembled students, "just been showing Professor Sprout the right way to doctor a Whomping Willow! But I don't want you running away with the idea that I'm better at Herbology than she is! I just happen to have met several of these exotic plants on my travels..."

Harry heard Faykan mutter, "That was a Whomping Willow?"

"Greenhouse three today, chaps!" said Professor Sprout, who was looking distinctly disgruntled, not at all her usual cheerful self.

The amassed students muttered excitedly about what new interesting plants they were going to work with while Professor Sprout unlocked the greenhouse. Harry was about to drag Faykan inside, when Lockhart's hand shot out.

"Harry! I've wanted a word, you don't mind if he's a couple minutes late, do you, Professor Sprout?"

Clearly she did mind, but Lockhart attempted to close the door in her face, only to be stopped as Faykan put his foot in the doorway.

"Professor Sprout may not mind, but I do," Faykan said with an angry glare, as he forced the door back open and started to push Harry inside, but the grinning Professor wasn't going to give up that easily. "I'm certain I could have just a few moments of Harry's time." He said, trying to grip Harry's arm and pull him back. Faykan glared murderously as Lockhart dragged Harry away, talking nonstop. By the time Harry finally got back to the greenhouse, Professor Sprout was telling the students that they were to be repotting Mandrakes that day. After explaining how they were to do it, she set them all to work in groups of five, and the four Gryffindors were joined by a curly haired Hufflepuff boy that Harry had never spoken to before.

"Justin Finch-Fletchley," he said brightly, shaking Harry by the hand. "Know who you are, of course, the famous Harry Potter... You're Hermione Granger and you're Faykan Undol, always the top two students in everything, except History of Magic" he continued, turning to each of them in turn and ignoring Faykan's complaint of 'Binns' incorrect information', "and Ron Weasley. Wasn't that your flying car?"

The Hufflepuff boy continued speaking for several minutes, commenting on how brave and wonderful he thought Lockhart was, which caused Faykan to break the metal trowel he was holding. As he magically repaired the tool, Justin kept talking about himself, mentioning that his mother wanted him to attend a prestigious muggle school until he persuaded her with Lockhart's books to allow him to attend Hogwarts, until they had to start the repotting, as they had to wear earmuffs to prevent the screaming Mandrakes from knocking them out.

The Gryffindor's next class was Transfiguration, and Ron was having a very hard time working with his broken wand. When Harry and Faykan commented that he should mail home for a new one, Ron scoffed and said he didn't want another Howler. During lunch, Harry read on their schedules something that he knew wasn't going to end well; their next class was Defense Against the Dark Arts. After they finished eating, the four Gryffindors went outside to the courtyard and Hermione sat to read her '_Voyages with Vampires_'book. Harry, Ron and Faykan discussed Quidditch, until Harry felt that he was being closely watched. Looking up, he saw a very small, mousy haired boy holding a muggle camera. The moment Harry looked at him, the boy went bright red.

"All right, Harry? I'm, I'm Colin Creevey," he said breathlessly, taking a tentative step forward. "I'm in Gryffindor, too. D'you think… would it be all right if… can I have a picture?" he said, raising the camera hopefully.

"A picture?" Harry repeated blankly.

"So I can prove I've met you," said Colin eagerly, edging further forward. "I know all about you. Everyone's told me. About how you survived when You-Know-Who tried to kill you and how he disappeared and everything and how you've still got a lightning scar on your forehead," (his eyes raked Harry's hairline) "and a boy in my dormitory said if I develop the film in the right potion, the pictures'll move." Colin drew a great shuddering breath of excitement and said, "It's amazing here, isn't it? I never knew all the odd stuff I could do was magic till I got the letter from Hogwarts. My dad's a milkman, he couldn't believe it either. So I'm taking loads of pictures to send home to him. And it'd be really good if I had one of you," he looked imploringly at Harry, "maybe your friend could take it and I could stand next to you? And then, could you sign it?"

Faykan's eyes narrowed at Colin, just as a loud, scathing voice echoed around the courtyard, "Signed photos? You're giving out signed photos, Potter?"

Theodore Nott stopped right behind Colin, flanked, as he always was at Hogwarts, by his large and thuggish cronies, Crabbe and Goyle.

"Everyone line up!" Nott roared to the crowd. "Harry Potter's giving out signed photos!"

"No, he's not," Faykan growled angrily, fist clenching. "Shut up, Nott." Harry saw that Faykan was itching to draw his wand and curse Nott into oblivion.

"You're just jealous," piped up Colin, whose entire body was about as thick as Crabbe's neck.

"Jealous?" said Nott, who didn't need to shout anymore: half the courtyard was listening in. "Of what? I don't want a foul scar right across my head, thanks. I don't think getting your head cut open makes you that special, myself."

Crabbe and Goyle were sniggering stupidly.

"Eat slugs, Nott," said Ron angrily. Crabbe stopped laughing and started rubbing his knuckles in a menacing way.

"Be careful, Weasley," sneered Nott. "You don't want to start any trouble or your Mommy'll have to come and take you away from school." He put on a shrill, piercing voice. "If you put another toe out of line'…"

A group of Slytherin fifth years nearby laughed loudly at this. "Weasley would like a signed photo, Potter," smirked Nott. "It'd be worth more than his family's whole house…"

Ron whipped out his Spellotaped wand, but Hermione shut '_Voyages with Vampires_' with a snap and whispered, "Look out!"

"What's all this, what's all this?" Gilderoy Lockhart was striding toward them, his turquoise robes swirling behind him. "Who's giving out signed photos?"

All Harry saw was a blur of motion as Faykan whipped his wand out and yelled, "_arrna en' me'urramya mallen sen_!"[1] Black storm clouds surrounded Nott, Lockhart, and Colin and thunder boomed as bolts of lightning flew around them. Dragging Harry by the arm, Faykan dashed back to the castle, Ron and Hermione in tow.

Faykan finally released Harry's arm when they were inside the Defense classroom, and immediately took the farthest seat from the front, Harry and Ron sitting next to him. Hermione took the chair in front of Faykan, just as the rest of the class filed in. Minutes later, Lockhart entered, slightly damp and his hair amiss, but he plastered a smile on his face as he turned to the class.

When the whole class was seated, Lockhart cleared his throat loudly and silence fell. He reached forward, picked up Neville Longbottom's copy of '_Travels with Trolls_', and held it up to show his own, winking portrait on the front.

"Me," he said, pointing at it and winking as well. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award, but I don't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!"

He waited for a few people to laugh; a few people smiled weakly, Faykan coughed loudly, and Harry swore he could hear the word 'git' mixed in.

"I see you've all bought a complete set of my books, well done. I thought we'd start today with a little quiz. Nothing to worry about just to check how well you've read them, how much you've taken in…"

When he had handed out the test papers he returned to the front of the class and said,

"You have thirty minutes, starting, now!"

Harry looked down at his paper and read:

_1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?_

_2. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?_

_3. What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?_

On and on it went, over three sides of paper, right down to:

_54. When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday, and what would his ideal gift be?_

Lockhart looked at Faykan, who was the only person not writing on the quiz paper "Um, excuse me Mr.…" he paused, unsure of Faykan's name.

"Undol," Faykan finished for him, looking both bored and irritated.

"Undol, are you finished with the quiz already?"

Faykan scoffed, "Absolutely, seeing how I'm not going to do it at all."

The entire class stopped at and looked at Faykan. Hermione just kept writing on the quiz, while Lockhart looked completely at a loss of how to handle the situation.

"Uh… why won't you do the quiz Mr. Undol?" he asked stupidly.

"Well, there is nothing on this quiz that has anything to do with Defense Against the Dark Arts, so why should I waste my time answering questions about you?"

The entire class was watching this exchange now, the quiz completely forgotten.

Lockhart seemed very agitated by Faykan's contemptuous glare, but masked it immediately with a wide smile, "Well, Mr. Undol, the quiz is to see how well you've read my books, which is important for me to see how you can handle my teaching style. You do not have to take the quiz if you feel you have anything to learn from it, but you may find yourself sorely unprepared.

Faykan just shrugged, and leaned back in his seat, while the sniggers of Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas could be heard, who were sitting in front. After the quiz, on which Hermione won Gryffindor ten points, Lockhart finally decided to try and teach something.

"Well, down to business," he said, bending down behind his desk and lifting a large, covered cage onto it. Harry was watching as Faykan glanced once at the cage then rolled his eyes dramatically, which sent Harry and Ron into a small fit of giggles.

"Now, be warned," said Lockhart, "It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind! You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. All I ask is that you remain calm. It might provoke them!"

As the whole class held its breath, Lockhart whipped off the cover.

"Yes," he said dramatically, "Freshly caught Cornish pixies…"

Faykan couldn't take any more, and burst out into a fit of laughter that even Lockhart couldn't mistake for a scream of terror, and the class followed suit.

Smiling at Faykan, Lockhart said "Right, then, if you find them so amusing, let's see what you make of them!" and he opened the cage.

It was pandemonium. The pixies shot in every direction like rockets. Two of them seized Neville by the ears and lifted him into the air. Several shot straight back through the front window as they were blasted by Faykan's quickly drawn wand, showering the floor with broken glass. But the rest proceeded to wreck the classroom more effectively than a rampaging rhino. They grabbed ink bottles and sprayed the class with them, shredded books and papers, tore pictures from the walls, upended the waste basket, grabbed bags and books and threw them out of the smashed window; within minutes, half the class was sheltering under desks and Neville was swinging from the iron chandelier in the ceiling.

"Come on now, round them up, round them up, they're only pixies," Lockhart shouted.

He rolled up his sleeves, brandished his wand, and bellowed, "Peskipiksi Pesternomi!"

It had absolutely no effect and one of the pixies seized his wand and threw it out of the window, too. Lockhart gulped and dived under his own desk, narrowly avoiding being squashed by Neville, who fell a second later as the chandelier gave way.

The bell rang and there was a mad rush toward the exit. In the relative calm that followed, Lockhart straightened up, caught sight of Harry, Faykan, Ron, and Hermione, who were almost at the door, and said, "Well, I'll ask you four to just nip the rest of them back into their cage." He swept past them and shut the door quickly behind him.

"Can you believe him?" roared Ron as one of the remaining pixies bit him painfully on the ear.

"He just wants to give us some hands on experience," said Hermione, immobilizing two pixies at once with a clever Freezing Charm and stuffing them back into their cage.

"Hands on?" said Harry, who was trying to grab a pixie dancing out of reach with its tongue out. "Hermione, he didn't have a clue what he was doing."

"Rubbish," said Hermione. "You've read his books; look at all those amazing things he's done…"

"He says he's done," Faykan retorted loudly.

[1] _arrna en' me'urramya mallen sen: storm of thunder encircle them_

**_Please Review!_**


	4. Chapter 3

**Thank you to those who reviewed Chapter Two. Keep it up! there nothing better than knowing that people care about your work. **

**Chapter Three**

**Voices in the Shadows**

Harry dodged out of sight the next few days whenever he saw Lockhart coming down a corridor, Faykan usually hot on his heels. Unfortunately, it was much harder for Harry to avoid Colin Creevey, who must have memorized Harry's schedule. However, Faykan wasn't very fond of the first year boy, so whenever he appeared to be pestering Harry (all the time), Faykan would throw him a glare that generally sent the small boy running away as fast as his legs could carry him with his generic farewell of "See you Harry."

Hedwig was still angry with Harry about the disastrous car journey and Ron's wand was still malfunctioning, surpassing itself on Friday morning by shooting out of Ron's hand in Charms and hitting tiny old Professor Flitwick squarely between the eyes, creating a large, throbbing green boil where it had struck. So with one thing and another, Harry was quite glad to reach the weekend. He, Ron, Faykan and Hermione were planning to visit Hagrid on Saturday morning.

Harry, however, was shook awake several hours earlier than he would have liked by Oliver Wood, Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Wood said something about a new training program, coercing Harry to get up, and he pulled on his Quidditch robes grudgingly. As Harry wrote a note for Ron, telling him where he'd gone he noticed that Faykan bed was empty, but he paid no mind, as Faykan was prone to drifting around the school at night, tonight was probably to let off steam from Lockhart's most recent class. Lockhart had dragged both him and Harry to the front of the class to reenact scenes from his books, much to the amusement of the rest of the second year Gryffindors.

Harry sighed lightly as he shouldered his Nimbus Two Thousand and left the dormitory, wishing that he could just crawl back into bed. Just as he reached the portrait hole, Harry heard a clatter behind him and turned to see Colin Creevey dash down the stairs, his camera swinging madly around his neck.

"All right, Harry?" he asked, as he usually did six or seven time a day.

"Hello, Colin," Harry said back dryly. He was about to leave again when Colin stopped in front of him holding the camera. "Harry, could I please have just one photo to send home, even if you don't sign it, please?" he begged.

"Not right now Colin, I'm in a hurry, Quidditch practice." Harry replied as he finally stepped through the portrait hole.

"Oh, wow! Wait for me! I've never watched a Quidditch game before!"

Colin scrambled through the hole after him.

"It'll be really boring," Harry said quickly, but Colin ignored him, his face shining with excitement.

"You were the youngest House player in a hundred years, weren't you, Harry? Weren't you?" said Colin, trotting alongside him. "You must be brilliant. I've never flown. Is it easy? Is that your own broom? Is that the best one there is?"

Harry was certain that the boy was going to drive him mad when he saw Colin dash ahead of him and bend down. When the boy turned back, Harry almost laughed out loud as he saw Faykan the fox in his arms. "Harry look at this, I saw this fox inside Gryffindor Tower before, isn't it amazing looking…" Colin kept right on talking, carrying Faykan and following Harry out of the castle, absently petting Faykan's fur rather harder than Harry thought could have been pleasant. Thankfully Faykan didn't try to bite Colin but simply resigned himself to being clung to like a stuffed animal.

When Harry finally reached the changing rooms, Colin dashed off to the stadium to get a seat to watch, and dropped Faykan by accident in his mad dash across the Quidditch field. Harry held the door open for his friend, and once they were inside Faykan changed back into human form, scowling.

"Did I ever mention how much I hate being petted by that kid…?" Faykan said while Harry laughed. "I honestly can't believe how early he wakes up, by the time I come back before dawn that kid is already in the common room either reading or playing with that stupid camera."

Faykan left the changing room when the rest of the Gryffindor team arrived, and when they finally got onto the pitch, he was circling it in the air on his custom broomstick while Ron and Hermione sat in the stands with Colin nearby. The team practiced for a short time, Colin snapping picture after picture of them, until Faykan finally flew down and took the camera from the boy, remaining there to make sure he didn't use it anymore that morning.

It was about this time that Wood noticed the Slytherin team walking onto the field, brooms in their hands.

"I don't believe it!" Wood hissed in outrage. "I booked the field for today! We'll see about this!"

Wood shot toward the ground, landing rather harder than he meant to in his anger, staggering slightly as he dismounted. Harry, Fred, and George followed.

"Flint!" Wood bellowed at the Slytherin Captain. "This is our practice time! We got up specially! You can clear off now!"

Marcus Flint was even larger than Wood. He had a look of trollish cunning on his face as he replied, "Plenty of room for all of us, Wood."

Angelina, Alicia, and Katie had come over, too. There were no girls on the Slytherin team, who stood shoulder to shoulder, facing the Gryffindors, leering. Wood argued with Flint about how he had booked the field, but Flint merely showed him a note signed by Professor Snape.

'_I, Professor S. Snape, give the Slytherin team permission to practice today on the Quidditch field owing to the need to train their new Seeker.'_

When questioned about their new seeker, Draco stepped forward through the large Slytherin boys. Harry sent Draco a curt nod, showing his own support of him making the team, even if it meant they would be competing against him. Flint then made a show of how Draco's father had sent the entire team Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones. As Ron, Hermione, Faykan and Colin made their way to the field; Flint continued to taunt the Gryffindor team's inferior brooms. Hermione piped up that at least the people on the Gryffindor team got there by pure talent. Draco sent her a hurt look while Flint spat, "No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood."

There was a pair of loud bangs and both Ron and Flint was lying on the ground, moaning in pain, while Faykan had his wand out, eyes shining in pure malice, paralyzing the rest of the Slytherin team.

"Ron! Ron! Are you all right?" squealed Hermione.

Ron opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead he gave an almighty belch and several slugs dribbled out of his mouth onto his lap. He had clearly tried to curse Flint as well, but his Spellotaped wand had backfired.

Faykan helped Harry carry Ron, and with Hermione in tow, they headed to Hagrid's hut while leaving the rest of the Gryffindor team to deal with the problem of the Slytherins. Colin started to follow, but Faykan shoved him out of the way angrily. They were within twenty feet of Hagrid's house when the front door opened, but it wasn't Hagrid who emerged. Gilderoy Lockhart, wearing robes of palest mauve today, came striding out.

"Quick, behind here," Harry hissed, he and Faykan dragging Ron behind a nearby bush while Hermione followed, somewhat reluctantly.

"It's a simple matter if you know what you're doing!" Lockhart was saying loudly to Hagrid. "If you need help, you know where I am! I'll let you have a copy of my book. I'm surprised you haven't already got one, I'll sign one tonight and send it over. Well, goodbye!" And he strode away toward the castle.

After Lockhart was out of sight, Harry knocked on Hagrid's door while Faykan and Hermione carried Ron to the doorstep. They seated Ron in a chair while Hagrid placed a large copper basin in front of him, explaining that there wasn't anything they could do but wait for the curse to stop. Harry and Faykan then explained what had happened to at the Quidditch pitch, and Hagrid comforted Hermione, telling her not to think about it, and praising her about how she was better and more clever then any student in the school, and was able to perform any spell ever invented.

About an hour later Harry's stomach rumbled loudly. It was nearly lunchtime and as Harry had only had one bite of treacle fudge since dawn at Hagrid's hut, he was keen to go back to school to eat. They said goodbye to Hagrid and walked back up to the castle, Ron hiccoughing occasionally, but only bringing up two very small slugs.

They had barely set foot in the cool entrance hall when a voice rang out, "There you are." Professor McGonagall was walking toward them, looking stern. "You three will do your detentions this evening."

"What're we doing, Professor?" said Ron, nervously suppressing a burp.

"You will be polishing the silver in the trophy room with Mr. Filch," said Professor McGonagall, "And no magic, Weasley, elbow grease." Ron gulped. Argus Filch, the caretaker, was loathed by every student in the school.

"Undol, you will be assisting Professor Snape harvesting potion ingredients in the Forbidden Forest. And you, Potter, will be helping Professor Lockhart answer his fan mail," said Professor McGonagall.

"Oh no, Professor, can't I go and do the trophy room or the forest, too?" said Harry desperately.

"Certainly not," said Professor McGonagall, raising her eyebrows. "Professor Lockhart requested you particularly. Eight o'clock sharp, you three."

Harry and Ron complained loudly about their detentions as the four Gryffindors made their way into the Great Hall, Hermione giving them a well-you-did-break-school-rules sort of expression. Harry noticed that Faykan was silent the entire time, and when he turned to look at him, he saw that his friend was actually smiling, "What are you grinning at?" he asked rather hotly.

"Well, better Snape than Lockhart, Harry," he said and burst up into a fit of laughter, which made Harry slug him hard in the shoulder.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The night was dark and clear when Severus Snape took Undol out into the forest to gather plants for his Potion classes. They trudged on in silence for the first half hour, collecting knotgrass and the occasional belladonna they came past, and Severus was starting to enjoy the silence of the forest when he heard Undol call him over. "Professor, come look at this."

Severus hurried over, wondering what the Gryffindor could have found, when he saw Undol shining his wand at a long trail of spiders making their way deep into the forest. Severus raised his eyebrows, the actions of the spiders was strange enough, but the fact remained that they were here to collect herbs, not study the behavior of the wildlife of the grounds. "Whatever those spiders are up to is not of your concern Undol, now come along. There is a small pond nearby I want to check for asphodel." The boy looked slightly sorrowful to leave the mystery of the spiders alone, but dutifully followed behind Severus.

When they reached the pond, Severus set Undol to pulling the long royal staffs from the ground and piling them in the container he had brought, which gave him time to finally regard the boy he had watched for almost a year now. Undol had grown slightly, still small for his age, but catching up quickly. His hair was still kept at shoulder length, just as Severus remembered the boy's father keeping it, and they shared the same piercing blue eyes. It was oddly reminiscent of how Potter reflected his father's features, apart for his mothers emerald eyes, which Severus had always found enchanting.

"Professor Snape?" Severus blinked, he was so busy recalling the face of Lily Potter that he didn't notice Undol come back to dump another pile of asphodel in his lap. Severus looked at the boy, waiting for him to speak again, but the boy shook his head, and turned to go harvest more plants. Severus, acting on impulse, grabbed the boys arm and pulled him to face him. Rolling up the boy's sleeve, he exposed the grey tattoos that covered the boy's arms. They shined in the moonlight filtering through the trees, looking almost black against the boy's skin. "What, Mr. Undol are these?" Severus asked, looking at the boys face for a reaction.

If the boy was surprised by Severus' sudden questioning, Undol didn't show it, "They're the markings of my family, Sir. The Undol line is descended from the mighty Istari that roamed the earth roughly five thousand years ago." Severus raised an eyebrow, "And your family can prove this with records from that far back?" he asked releasing the boy's arm. "Indeed, we have the records of many of the pureblood families in our vaults and at our ancestral home, dating well back into the Third Age of the earth." Undol turned to leave again, but Severus stopped him again, saying that their hour was up and it was time to return to the castle.

Severus watched the boy walk ahead of him, wondering at what the boy had revealed to him. 'Strange,' he thought, 'that this boy could be so mature and knowledgeable at the age of twelve. Descended from the Istari of the Third Age? No other records date _that_ far back, they were lost in the Middle Ages.'

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

When Harry finally returned to Gryffindor Tower after four long hours of enduring Lockhart's prattle, he found Faykan waiting for him in the deserted common room. He grinned as Harry come through the portrait hole, "back already, I thought Lockhart would have you there until tomorrow easily." Harry laughed sarcastically, and they went up to their dormitory, while Faykan told him about his time in the forest, especially about the odd behavior of the spiders he had seen. Harry remembered suddenly the chilling voice he had heard at the end of his detention and told Faykan about it. Faykan eyes sparkled as Harry described how it had spoke about killing and death, but he didn't comment. They climbed into bed and Harry waited for Ron to return. Another half hour rolled by until Ron entered the dormitory, complaining about the trophies that Filch had him polishing fourteen times because he had spit a slug on it by accident. Harry told him about the voice and what Faykan had seen in the forest, and at the mention of spiders Ron shuddered.

"And Lockhart said he couldn't hear it?" Ron said curiously. Harry could see him frowning in the moonlight. "Do you think he was lying? But I don't get it; even someone invisible would've had to open the door."

"I know," said Harry, lying back in his four-poster and staring at the canopy above him. "I don't get it either."

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco found Hermione and Ron in the library one wet and cold Saturday morning in late October. He had wandered in to work on a History of Magic essay, when he saw Hermione stacking what looked like twenty books onto the desk she and Ron were sharing. Walking over, Draco saw that Hermione was currently pouring over _'Abridged History of the Third Age_,_'_ while Ron worked on his Potions assignment. "Hello, Draco," Hermione said without looking up from her book.

"Hey, what are you researching there Hermione?" Draco responded, sitting across from her and pulling out his essay.

She didn't respond at first, focusing on a line in her book. Finally, after a moment or two she clapped her hands in excitement "I've figured it out," she said joyously.

"Figured out what?" Draco said, confused.

"Hermione's trying to find out what language Faykan spoke when he cast a spell at Lockhart and Nott weeks ago," Ron said dryly, "I think she's obsessed…"

Hermione shot him a look and finally turned to Draco, "Haven't you noticed that Faykan usually casts his spell silently, except is rare occasions, and then it's mostly in that strange airy language that no one can understand?" Draco nodded; he had noticed that Faykan seemed rather adept at silent spells. "I knew it had to be something exceptionally rare, so I've been looking for old and dead languages, and I found that the extinct high elves, who according to legend lived on the earth over two thousand years ago before disappearing, spoke a language know as Sindaren, which according to these descriptions is the closest thing I can find that fits they tones and structure that Faykan speaks when he casts."

"Did you know," Draco added, "that according to the legend, the last high elf female married a great king of men, and they became the first ancestors of the pureblood lines." Draco suddenly remembered the paper that Faykan had left for him to read when he left Malfoy Manor that summer. "I just remembered, Faykan knows this legend, I think…"

Draco then explained everything that Faykan had done during the month of July, how he had been working night and day on a family record of the early middle ages. "I think," Hermione said after Draco had finished, "that he might know far more about this legend than the wizarding community remembers."

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry and Faykan were trudging down a deserted corridor, soaked through from the pouring rain outside. Harry had been up bright and early that morning at Quidditch practice while Faykan had watched from the stands. As they were returning to Gryffindor Tower, they passed by Nearly Headless Nick staring out of a window, muttering under his breath about not fulfilling requirements.

"Hello, Nick," Harry said absently, his mind elsewhere.

The Gryffindor ghost responded his greetings, and commented on how Harry looked rather troubled, which was very true. Harry had heard about the performance of the Slytherin's Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones from Fred and George, who had spied on some of their training sessions. They reported that the Slytherin team was no more than seven green blurs, shooting through the air like missiles. When Faykan commented that Nick looked just as preoccupied as Harry, the ghost launched into a rant about not being allowed to participate in the headless hunt, a special society of headless ghosts.

Harry was about to make up an excuse for them to leave Nick and return to Gryffindor Tower, when a high pitched mewling sounded at his ankles. Both he and Faykan looked down to see Mrs. Norris' lamp like eyes gazing at them. "You'd better get out of here, boys," said Nick quickly. "Filch isn't in a good mood; he's got the flu and some third years accidentally plastered frog brains all over the ceiling in dungeon five. He's been cleaning all morning, and if he sees you dripping mud all over the place…"

"Right," Harry said, backing away from Mrs. Norris as Faykan changed into his animagus form. Nick widened his eyes as he watched the boy change into a rather soaked fox, looking oddly tiny with his fur plastered to his body from the water coating him. Faykan had changed just in time, as Argus Filch burst suddenly through a tapestry to Harry's right, wheezing and looking wildly about for the rule-breaker. There was a thick tartan scarf bound around his head, and his nose was unusually purple.

"Filth!" he shouted his jowls aquiver, his eyes popping alarmingly as he pointed at the muddy puddle that had dripped from Harry's Quidditch robes. "Mess and muck everywhere! I've had enough of it, I tell you! Follow me, Potter!"

So Harry waved a gloomy good-bye to Nearly Headless Nick and Faykan the fox as he followed Filch back downstairs, adding to the number of muddy footprints on the floor.

Harry had never been inside Filch's office before; it was a place most students avoided. The room was dingy and windowless, lit by a single oil lamp dangling from the low ceiling. A faint smell of fried fish lingered about the place. Wooden filing cabinets stood around the walls; from their labels, Harry could see that they contained details of every pupil Filch had ever punished. Filch grabbed a quill from a pot on his desk and began shuffling around looking for parchment, muttering about the time he would have to spend cleaning the mess Harry had made.

Just as Filch was about to declare his punishment for Harry, there was a deafening bang and a crash just above them. Filch roared and ran from the room, with Mrs. Norris hot on his heels. Thinking that he should probably wait for Filch to come back, Harry sank into a moth eaten chair next to the desk. There was only one thing on it apart from his half completed form: a large, glossy, purple envelope with silver lettering on the front. With a quick glance at the door to check that Filch wasn't on his way back, Harry picked up the envelope and read: '_Kwikspell A Correspondence Course in Beginners' Magic._' Harry was about to flick open the letter, intrigued, when shuffling footsteps outside told him Filch was coming back. Harry threw the envelope back onto the desk just as the door opened. Filch was looking furious. "That vanishing cabinet was extremely valuable!" he was saying to Mrs. Norris. "I do hope we catch whoever thought it would be a good idea to demolish it." His eyes fell on Harry and then darted to the Kwikspell envelope, which, Harry realized too late, was lying two feet away from where it had started. Filch's pasty face went brick red and he began sputtering angrily, demanding if Harry had read the letter, declaring that it wasn't his, and finally throwing Harry out of his office without a punishment.

Amazed at his luck, Harry sped out of the office, up the corridor, and back upstairs. To escape from Filch's office without punishment was probably some kind of school record.

"Harry! Harry! Did it work?"

Faykan was running down the corridor with Nick gliding behind, "Nick suggested that I should blow up that cabinet to try and distract Filch."

"Was that you?" said Harry gratefully. "Yeah, it worked, I didn't even get detention. Thanks!"

Faykan beamed and they continued their way to Gryffindor Tower, Nick gliding beside them. Harry noticed that he was still holding the rejection letter from the Headless Hunt. Harry asked if there was anything he could do for Nick about the Hunt, and the ghost brightened, explaining that he was having his five hundredth deathday party that Halloween in the dungeons, and he asked if Harry and Faykan would attend, if only for a small time.

"Oh, of course we'll come," Harry said, elbowing Faykan in the ribs before he could complain. Nick joyously glided away, and Harry led the way to the common room while Faykan protested loudly about how boring going to the deathday party would be.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Hermione was excited to attend the death day party, while both Ron and Faykan complained about missing the Halloween feast, which rumor had that Dumbledore had booked a troupe of dancing skeletons for entertainment. But Harry wouldn't go back on his promise and at seven the four Gryffindors walked straight past the very inviting doorway that led to the packed Great Hall, and down the steps towards the dungeons.

The passageway leading to Nearly Headless Nick's party had been lined with candles, too, though the effect was far from cheerful: These were long, thin, jet-black tapers, all burning bright blue, casting a dim, ghostly light even over their own living faces. The temperature dropped with every step they took. As Harry shivered and drew his robes tightly around him, he heard what sounded like a thousand fingernails scraping an enormous blackboard.

"Is that supposed to be music?" Ron whispered. They turned a corner and saw Nearly Headless Nick standing at a doorway hung with black velvet drapes.

"My dear friends," he said mournfully. "Welcome, welcome . . . so pleased you could come..."

It was an incredible sight. The dungeon was full of hundreds of pearly white, translucent people, mostly drifting around a crowded dance floor, waltzing to the dreadful, quavering sound of thirty musical saws, played by an orchestra on a raised, black draped platform. A chandelier overhead blazed midnight-blue with a thousand more black candles. Their breath rose in a mist before them; it was like stepping into a freezer. Harry suggested that they look around, at least to warm up their feet. They passed a group of gloomy nuns, a ragged man wearing chains, and the Fat Friar, a cheerful Hufflepuff ghost, who was talking to a knight with an arrow sticking out of his forehead as they made their way carefully around the edge of the dance floor.

"Oh, no," said Hermione, stopping abruptly. "Turn back, turn back, I don't want to talk to Moaning Myrtle…"

"Who?" said Harry as they backtracked quickly, but it was too late. A squat ghost of a girl had glided over. She had the glummest face Harry had ever seen, half hidden behind lank hair and thick, pearly spectacles. She looked at each of them sulkily, and when her eyes settled on Faykan, who was bright red at this point, she brightened. "Oh, it's the fox boy." She said to him, and Faykan mumbled something that sounded like 'hello' as he turned walk away from her. While Myrtle followed and continued to talk the ever increasingly agitated Faykan, Hermione explained to Ron and Harry that she haunted the girl's bathroom on the first floor. As she mentioned that she was incredibly sensitive, they all jumped as a piercing wail. They whipped around in time to see Myrtle burst into anguished sobs and flee from the dungeon, leaving a shocked and still very red Faykan standing next to Nick.

"What happened to Myrtle?" Hermione said as they joined Faykan and Nick. Faykan didn't look like he wanted to answer, and Nick spoke for him, "Miss Myrtle got a trifle upset when I insisted that she give young Mr. Undol a bit of space. She was making quite a scene, and I felt that Mr. Undol was becoming rather embarrassed at her advances."

Faykan's faced glowed the rest of the time they spent at the deathday party. Harry finally indulged his silent requests to leave when the Headless Hunt arrived and started to disrupt the festivities with their games of headless polo.

They backed toward the door, nodding and beaming at anyone who looked at them, and a minute later were hurrying back up the passageway full of black candles.

"Pudding might not be finished yet," said Ron hopefully, leading the way toward the steps to the entrance hall. Hermione was pestering Faykan about what Myrtle had been saying to him, but Faykan was refusing to talk about it. "I just want to put tonight behind us," he said, his face burning.

And then Harry heard it.

_"... Rip ... tear ... kill ..."_

It was the same voice, the same cold, murderous voice he had heard in Lockhart's office.

He stumbled to a halt, clutching at the stone wall, listening with all his might, looking around, squinting up and down the dimly lit passageway.

"Harry, what're you…?"

"It's that voice again, shut up a minute…"

_"... So hungry ... for so long ..."_

"Listen!" said Harry urgently, and Faykan, Ron and Hermione froze, watching him.

_"... Kill ... time to kill ..."_

The voice was growing fainter. Harry was sure it was moving away, moving upward. A mixture of fear and excitement gripped him as he stared at the dark ceiling. "This way," he shouted, and he began to run, up the stairs, into the entrance hall. It was no good hoping to hear anything here, the babble of talk from the Halloween feast was echoing out of the Great Hall. Harry sprinted up the marble staircase to the first floor, Ron his friends clattering behind him.

"Harry, what're we…"

Harry hushed them, straining his ears. Distantly, from the floor above, and growing fainter still, he heard the voice: _"... I smell blood... I SMELL BLOOD!"_

His stomach lurched.

"It's going to kill someone!" he shouted, and ignoring the three Gryffindor's bewildered faces, he ran up the next flight of steps three at a time, trying to listen over his own pounding footsteps.

Harry hurtled around the whole of the second floor, Faykan, Ron and Hermione racing behind him, not stopping until they turned a corner into the last, deserted passage.

"Harry, what was that all about?" said Ron, wiping sweat off his face. "I couldn't hear anything..."

But Hermione gave a sudden gasp, pointing down the corridor.

"Look!"

Something was shining on the wall ahead. They approached slowly, squinting through the darkness. Foot high words had been daubed on the wall between two windows, shimmering in the light cast by the flaming torches:

'_The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, beware.'_

"What's that thing hanging underneath?" said Ron, a slight quiver in his voice.

As they edged nearer, Faykan almost slipped, there was a large puddle of water on the floor; Ron and Hermione grabbed him, and they inched toward the message, eyes fixed on a dark shadow beneath it. All three of them realized what it was at once, and leapt backward with a splash... Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's cat, was hanging by her tail from the torch bracket. She was stiff as a board, her eyes wide and staring.

For a few seconds, they didn't move. Then Ron said, "Let's get out of here."

"Shouldn't we try and help…" Harry began awkwardly.

"Trust me," said Faykan. "We don't want to be found here."

But it was too late as a rumble from below told them that the feast had just ended. From either end of the corridor where they stood soon was alive with the sound of hundreds of feet climbing the stairs, and the loud, happy talk of well fed people; next moment, students were crashing into the passage from both ends.

The chatter, the bustle, the noise died suddenly as the people in front spotted the hanging cat. Harry, Faykan, Ron, and Hermione stood alone, in the middle of the corridor, as silence fell among the mass of students pressing forward to see the grisly sight.

Then someone shouted through the quiet.

"Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"

It was Theodore Nott. He had pushed to the front of the crowd, his eyes alive as he grinned at the sight of the hanging, immobile cat.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Severus arrived with Dumbledore just in time to see Argus Filch holding Potter up by the collar of his robes, shaking him with fury as the students looked on in horror.

"You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll…"

"Argus!" called the Headmaster, freezing the caretaker and causing him to release his hold on Potter. The boy scrambled back to his friends, who were all huddled against the opposite wall, as Dumbledore swept over to inspect the body of Mrs. Norris. Gently he removed the cat's stiffened form and motioned for Severus and Professor McGonagall to follow him, "Come with me, Argus," he said to Filch, and motioned toward Potter and his friends, "and you four as well."

Lockhart stepped forward eagerly.

"My office is nearest, Headmaster; just upstairs… please feel free…"

"Thank you, Gilderoy," said Dumbledore.

The silent crowd parted to let them pass. Lockhart bounded after Albus looking excited and important, followed by Severus and McGonagall, with Potter's group bringing up the rear.

As they entered Lockhart's darkened office there was a flurry of movement across the walls; several of Lockhart's ridiculous pictures dodging out of sight, their hair in rollers. The real Lockhart lit the candles on his desk and stood back as Dumbledore lay Mrs. Norris on the polished surface and began to examine her. Potter, Weasley, Granger and Undol exchanged tense looks and sank into chairs outside the pool of candlelight, watching.

Lockhart annoyingly hovered around, offering ludicrous suggestions about made up curses and other nonsense that he wrote in his fictional books that Severus could see was interfering with Albus' concentration.

"She's not dead, Argus," the Headmaster said softly, when he finally straightened. "She has been Petrified, but how I cannot say…"

"Ask him!" shrieked Filch, turning his blotched and tearstained face to Potter.

"No second year could have done this," said Dumbledore firmly, and Severus agreed with him to a point. No _normal _second year could have managed it, but Severus believed, no he knew that Undol was not anything near ordinary. Filch continued to argue that Potter was the guilty party with Albus, and Severus decided that it was time to vouch his opinion, "If I might speak, Headmaster," he said as he stepped into the candlelight, "Potter and his friends may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time." He glanced at Undol, conveying his suspicion of the boy to Albus. "But," he continued, "we do have a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why were they in the upstairs corridor and not at the Halloween feast?"

Potter, Weasley and Granger started explaining about Nick's yearly deathday party that he held at the same time as the feast. Strangely Undol remained silent during their explanation, embarrassment evident on his face. "But why were you in that corridor after, and not joining the feast after you left?" Potter gave a weak excuse of them being tired, and Weasley tried to back it up that they weren't hungry, while Undol continued to be silent.

"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus," Albus said firmly, after he had probed the minds of Potter, Weasley, and Granger. Severus knew that try as Dumbledore might, Undol was far too aware of their abilities to be caught off guard for legilimency. Filch looked furious, still thinking that they were discussing Potter.

"My cat has been Petrified!" he shrieked, his eyes popping. "I want to see some punishment!"

"We will be able to cure her, Argus," Albus said patiently. "Professor Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made that will revive Mrs. Norris."

"I'll make it," Lockhart butted in. "I must have done it a hundred times. I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep…"

"Excuse me," Severus interjected icily. "But I believe I am the Potions master at this school."

After a very awkward pause the Headmaster turned to Potter and the other three Gryffindors, "You may go," he said simply.

After the four students left, Albus sent McGonagall and Lockhart to take Mrs. Norris to the Hospital Wing and Filch to go try and get some rest. When they were out of sight, Severus launched into his suspicions, "Headmaster, I feel that it is possible, if not probable that Mr. Undol is capable of causing the petrifaction of Mrs. Norris. It may be advisable to…" Albus cut him off mid sentence.

"I do not believe, Severus that any of those four Gryffindors are responsible for what happened tonight. Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, and Miss Granger are certainly not capable of causing it, and I do not believe that it would be in Mr. Undol's intention to do such a dark spell to simply petrify Mrs. Norris."

"Then," Severus said, "what do you believe is the reason Albus?"

Albus looked very grave, "I think, that whoever opened the Chamber fifty years ago has sent a successor, or has returned to continue attacking the students of this school…"

_**Review!**_


	5. Chapter 4

**Thanks to those who reviewed Chapter Three, Keep it up! Also, I've created a forum for people to ask questions or comment on my story if they so choose, the link to it is on my profile page! Enjoy, and i hope to hear from my readers.**

**Chapter Four**

**Moaning Myrtle**

For the next few days, all school could talk about was the attack on Mrs. Norris. Filch kept pacing the spot where she had been attacked, as though he thought the attacker might come back. When Filch wasn't guarding the scene of the crime, he was skulking red eyed through the corridors, lunging out at unsuspecting students and trying to put them in detention for things like 'breathing loudly' and 'looking happy.'

The attack had also had an effect on Faykan and Hermione. Faykan had once again taken to wandering the corridors at night, disguised in his animagus form, while Hermione was reading more than she had ever done before. Nor could Harry, Faykan or Ron get much response from her when they asked what she was up to, and not until the following Wednesday did they find out. Faykan had been held back in Potions, where Snape had made him stay behind to scrape tubeworms off the desks and Harry had waited for him. After a hurried lunch, the two boys went upstairs to meet Ron in the library, and saw Justin Finch-Fletchley, the Hufflepuff boy from Herbology, coming toward them. Harry had just opened his mouth to say hello when Justin caught sight of them, turned abruptly, and sped off in the opposite direction.

They found Ron at the back of the library, measuring his History of Magic homework. Professor Binns had asked for a three foot long composition on 'The Medieval Assembly of European Wizards.'

"I don't believe it, I'm still eight inches short," said Ron furiously, letting go of his parchment, which sprang back into a roll. "And Hermione's done four feet seven inches and her writing's tiny."

"Where is she?" asked Harry, grabbing the tape measure and unrolling his own homework.

"Somewhere over there," said Ron, pointing along the shelves, "looking for another book. I think she's trying to read the whole library before Christmas."

Harry told Ron about Justin Finch-Fletchley running away from him.

"Dunno why you care. I thought he was a bit of an idiot," said Faykan, while Ron scribbled away, making his writing as large as possible. "All that rubbish about Lockhart being so great."

Hermione emerged from between the bookshelves. She looked irritable and at last seemed ready to talk to them.

"All the copies of Hogwarts, A History have been taken out," she said, sitting down next to Faykan; across from Harry and Ron. "And there's a two week waiting list. I wish I hadn't left my copy at home, but I couldn't fit it in my trunk with all the Lockhart books."

"Why do you want it?" said Harry.

"The same reason everyone else wants it," said Hermione, "to read up on the legend of the Chamber of Secrets."

"What's that?" said Harry quickly; just as he noticed Faykan get his traditional distant look that he always wore when he was working something out.

"That's just it. I can't remember," said Hermione, biting her lip. "And I can't find the story anywhere else…"

"Hermione, let me read your composition," said Ron desperately, checking his watch.

"No, I won't," said Hermione, suddenly severe. "You've had ten days to finish it."

"I only need another two inches, come on…"

The bell rang. Ron and Hermione led the way to History of Magic, bickering.

History of Magic was the dullest subject on their schedule. Professor Binns, who taught it, was their only ghost teacher, and the most exciting thing that ever happened in his classes was his entering the room through the blackboard. Today was as boring as ever. Professor Binns opened his notes and began to read in a flat drone like an old vacuum cleaner until nearly everyone in the class was in a deep stupor.

He had been speaking for half an hour when something happened that had never happened before. Hermione put up her hand. Professor Binns, glancing up in the middle of a deadly dull lecture on the International Warlock Convention of 1289, looked amazed. "Miss… err…?"

"Granger, Professor. I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets," said Hermione in a clear voice.

Dean Thomas, who had been sitting with his mouth hanging open, gazing out of the window, jerked out of his trance; Lavender Brown's head came up off her arms and Neville Longbottom's elbow slipped off his desk.

Professor Binns blinked.

"My subject is History of Magic," he said in his dry, wheezy voice. "I deal with facts, Miss Granger, not myths and legends." He cleared his throat with a small noise like chalk snapping and continued, "In September of that year, a subcommittee of Sardinian sorcerers…"

He stuttered to a halt. Faykan's hand was now waving in the air.

"Mr. Undol?"

Everyone's eyes darted from Faykan to Professor Binns. He had never gotten a student's name right in years…

"Don't legends always have a basis in fact, Sir?"

Professor Binns was looking at him in such amazement, Harry was sure no student had ever interrupted him before, alive or dead. "Well," said Professor Binns slowly, "yes, one could argue that, I suppose." He peered at Faykan as though he had never seen a student properly before. "However, the legend of which you speak is such a very sensational, even ludicrous tale…"

But the whole class was now hanging on Professor Binns' every word. He looked dimly at them all, every face turned to his. Harry could tell he was completely thrown by such an unusual show of interest.

"Oh, very well," he said slowly. "Let me see... the Chamber of Secrets ...

"You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago, the precise date is uncertain, by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school Houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution."

The ghost continued to explain that at first the founders had worked together, but eventually a rift grew between Slytherin and the other three, because of Slytherin's desire to be more 'selective' about who they allowed to attend Hogwarts, namely purebloods. Eventually there was a confrontation between Slytherin and Gryffindor and Slytherin left the school.

Professor Binns paused again, pursing his lips, looking like a wrinkled old tortoise.

"Reliable historical sources tell us this much," he said. "But these honest facts have been obscured by the fanciful legend of the Chamber of Secrets. The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing.

"Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic."

There was silence as he finished telling the story, but it wasn't the usual, sleepy silence that filled Professor Binns' classes. There was unease in the air as everyone continued to watch him, hoping for more. Professor Binns looked faintly annoyed.

"The whole thing is arrant nonsense, of course," he said. "Naturally, the school has been searched for evidence of such a chamber, many times, by the most learned witches and wizards. It does not exist. A tale told to frighten the gullible."

Hermione's hand was back in the air.

"Sir, what exactly do you mean by the 'horror within' the Chamber?"

"That is believed to be some sort of monster, which the Heir of Slytherin alone can control," said Professor Binns in his dry, reedy voice.

The class exchanged nervous looks.

"I tell you, the thing does not exist," said Professor Binns, shuffling his notes. "There is no Chamber and no monster."

Several students began voice their opinions about why the chamber could not have been found, but Binns had had enough.

"That will do," he said sharply. "It is a myth! It does not exist! There is not a shred of evidence that Slytherin ever built as much as a secret broom cupboard! I regret telling you such a foolish story! We will return, if you please, to history, to solid, believable, verifiable fact!"

And within five minutes, the class had sunk back into its usual torpor. "I always knew Salazar Slytherin was a twisted old loony," Ron told the others as they fought their way through the teeming corridors at the end of the lesson to drop off their bags before dinner. "But I never knew he started all this pureblood stuff. I wouldn't be in his house if you paid me. Honestly, if the Sorting Hat had tried to put me in Slytherin, I'd have got the train straight back home..."

Hermione nodded fervently, but Harry didn't say anything. His stomach had just dropped unpleasantly, remembering where the hat had tried to place Faykan last year. He noticed that Faykan didn't say anything either, but just stared off into space.

As they were shunted along in the throng, Colin Creevey went past. "Hiya, Harry!"

"Hullo, Colin," said Harry automatically.

"Harry, Harry, a boy in my class has been saying you're…" But Colin was so small he couldn't fight against the tide of people bearing him toward the Great Hall; they heard him squeak, "See you, Harry!" and he was gone.

"What's a boy in his class saying about you?" Hermione wondered.

"That I'm Slytherin's heir, I expect," said Harry, his stomach dropping another inch or so as he suddenly remembered the way Justin Finch-Fletchley had run away from him and  
>Faykan at lunchtime.<p>

"People here'll believe anything," said Ron in disgust.

The crowd thinned and they were able to climb the next staircase without difficulty.

"D'you really think there's a Chamber of Secrets?" Ron asked Hermione.

"I don't know," she said, frowning. "Dumbledore couldn't cure Mrs. Norris, and that makes me think that whatever attacked her might not be, well, human."

As she spoke, they turned a corner and found themselves at the end of the very corridor where the attack had happened. They stopped and looked. The scene was just as it had been that night, except that there was no stiff cat hanging from the torch bracket, and an empty chair stood against the wall bearing the message '_The Chamber of_

_Secrets has been Opened_.'

"That's where Filch has been keeping guard," Ron muttered.

They looked at each other. The corridor was deserted. "Can't hurt to have a poke around," said Faykan, and Harry dropped his bag and got to his hands and knees so that he could crawl along, searching for clues.

"Scorch marks!" he said, "Here, and here."

"Come and look at this!" said Hermione. "This is funny..."

Harry got up and crossed to the window next to the message on the wall. Hermione was pointing at the topmost pane, where around twenty spiders were scuttling, apparently fighting to get through a small crack. A long, silvery thread was dangling like a rope, as though they had all climbed it in their hurry to get outside.

"It's just like the spiders I saw in the forest during my detention with Snape," Faykan commented.

"Have you ever seen spiders act like that?" said Hermione wonderingly.

"No," said Harry, "have you, Ron? Ron?"

He looked over his shoulder. Ron was standing well back and seemed to be fighting the impulse to run.

"What's up?" said Harry.

"I. Don't. Like. Spiders," said Ron tensely.

"I never knew that," said Hermione, looking at Ron in surprise. "You've used spiders in Potions loads of times...

"I don't mind them dead," said Ron, who was carefully looking anywhere but at the window. "I just don't like the way they move..."

Hermione giggled.

"It's not funny," said Ron, fiercely. "If you must know, when I was three, Fred turned my, my teddy bear into a great big filthy spider because I broke his toy broomstick... You wouldn't like them either if you'd been holding your bear and suddenly it had too many legs and... "

He broke off, shuddering. Hermione was obviously still trying not to laugh. Feeling they had better get off the subject, Harry said, "Remember all that water on the floor? Where did that come from?"

"Someone's mopped it up."

"It was about here," said Ron, recovering himself to walk a few paces past Filch's chair and pointing. "Level with this door." He reached for the brass doorknob but suddenly withdrew his hand as though he'd been burned.

"What's the matter?" said Harry.

"Can't go in there," said Ron gruffly. "That's a girls' toilet."

"Oh, Ron, there won't be anyone in there," said Hermione, standing up and coming over. "That's Moaning Myrtle's place. Come on, let's have a look."

"I don't want to go in there," Faykan said abruptly, and Harry, Ron and Hermione turned to look at him. Faykan was shifting nervously, edging slightly away from the bathroom.

"Fay," Harry said concerned, "Are you okay?"

"I really don't want to see _her _again, if it's alright with you." He replied, a tint of redness starting to creep onto his face.

"Oh come on, there's nothing she can do to you, stop being so scared." Hermione said, grabbing Faykan wrist. And ignoring the large _'OUT of ORDER'_ sign, she opened the door, dragging the protesting Faykan behind her, with Harry and Ron following. It was the gloomiest, most depressing bathroom Harry had ever set foot in. Under a large, cracked, and spotted mirror were a row of chipped sinks. The floor was damp and reflected the dull light given off by the stubs of a few candles, burning low in their holders; the wooden doors to the stalls were flaking and scratched and one of them was dangling off its hinges.

Hermione put her fingers to her lips and set off toward the end stall. When she reached it she said, "Hello, Myrtle, how are you?" Harry and Ron went to look, while Faykan glanced at the door and edged toward it, until Harry grabbed his arm to stop him. Moaning Myrtle was floating above the tank of the toilet, picking a spot on her chin.

"This is a girls' bathroom," she said, eyeing Ron, Faykan and Harry suspiciously, finally settling her eyes on Faykan with a small grin. "They're not girls."

"No," Hermione agreed. "I just wanted to show them how err… nice it is in here."

She waved vaguely at the dirty old mirror and the damp floor.

"Ask her if she saw anything," Harry mouthed at Hermione.

"What are you whispering?" said Myrtle, staring at him.

"Nothing," said Harry quickly. "We wanted to ask…"

"I wish people would stop talking behind my back!" said Myrtle, in a voice choked with tears. "I do have feelings, you know, even if I am dead…"

"Myrtle, no one wants to upset you," said Hermione. "Harry only…"

"No one wants to upset me! That's a good one!" howled Myrtle. "My life was nothing but misery at this place and now people come along ruining my death!"

"We wanted to ask you if you've seen anything funny lately," said Hermione quickly, "because a cat was attacked right outside your front door on Halloween."

"Did you see anyone near here that night?" said Harry.

"I wasn't paying attention," said Myrtle dramatically. "Nick upset me so much I came in here and tried to kill myself. Then, of course, I remembered that I'm… that I'm…"

"Already dead," said Ron helpfully.

Myrtle gave a tragic sob, rose up in the air, turned over, and dived headfirst into the toilet, splashing water all over them and vanishing from sight, although from the direction of her muffled sobs, she had come to rest somewhere in the U-bend.

Harry and Ron stood with their mouths open, but Hermione shrugged wearily and said, "Honestly, that was almost cheerful for Myrtle... Come on, let's go."

Faykan was out the door quicker than lightning. Harry had barely closed the door on Myrtle's gurgling sobs when a Hermione was laying into Faykan, "So Fay, why does Myrtle terrify you so much?" she said with a suppressed giggle.

Faykan face flushed immediately and he started to try and change the subject, but Hermione persisted until Faykan finally blurted out, "She caught me in there…"

"In there doing what?" Ron said stupidly, and Faykan turned away and coughed, but Harry had a faint idea what he had been doing. "I was wandering down the corridor and I couldn't wait to find a boy's room…" Faykan muttered looking down at his shoes and Ron burst out laughing, earning a sharp poke in the ribs from Hermione.

"It's not funny Ron." Faykan said indignantly, "If you'd been out all night as an animal that had a tiny bladder you would have gone in there too."

"And, she saw you, doing your business," Hermione said slowly, and Faykan nodded. "She came right up through the toilet, scared me half to death, so I transformed and ran for it." Faykan shuddered at the memory, "Now she keeps following me around whenever she sees me, making references and innuendos…"

"I'm sorry Fay," Hermione said, putting a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off, "Can we talk about something else please." He said, and walked off back to the Great Hall.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Ron couldn't stop laughing at Faykan's misfortune throughout dinner, and the entire way back up to the common room. He was so distracted that he kept blotting his Charm's homework, and when he tried to remove the smudges with his wand, he accidentally ignited the parchment. In an effort to put out the flames, he slammed '_The Standard Book of Spells Grade 2_' closed on the parchment. To Harry's surprise, Hermione followed suit.

"Who can it be, though?" she said in a quiet voice, as though continuing a conversation they had just been having. "Who'd want to frighten all the Squibs and Muggleborns out of Hogwarts?"

"Let's think," said Ron in mock puzzlement, still trying to stop chucking. "Who do we know who thinks Muggleborns are scum?"

He looked at Hermione. Hermione looked back, unconvinced.

"If you're talking about Nott…"

"Of course I am!" said Ron. "You heard him, `You'll be next, Mudbloods!' come on, you've only got to look at his foul rat face to know it's him."

"Nott, the Heir of Slytherin?" said Faykan skeptically.

"Well," said Hermione cautiously, "I suppose it's possible..."

"But how would we prove it?" said Harry darkly.

"We could have Draco ask him," Faykan suggested, but Ron shot it down, saying that Nott didn't trust Draco because he was too close to them.

"There might be another way," said Hermione slowly, dropping her voice still further with a quick glance across the room at Percy. "Of course, it would be difficult, and dangerous, very dangerous. We'd be breaking about fifty school rules, I expect…"

"If, in a month or so, you feel like explaining, you will let us know, won't you?" said Ron irritably.

"All right," said Hermione coldly. "What we'd need to do is to get inside the Slytherin common room and ask Nott a few questions without him realizing it's us."

"But that's impossible," Harry said as Ron laughed.

"No, it's not," said Hermione. "All we'd need would be some Polyjuice Potion."

"What's that?" said Ron and Harry together.

"Snape mentioned it in class a few weeks ago…"

"D'you think we've got nothing better to do in Potions than listen to Snape?" muttered Ron.

"It transforms you into somebody else. Think about it! We could change into three of the Slytherins. No one would know it was us. Nott would probably tell us anything."

"This Polyjuice stuff sounds a bit dodgy to me," said Ron, frowning. "What if we were stuck looking like four of the Slytherins forever?"

"It wears off after a while," said Hermione, waving her hand impatiently. "But getting hold of the recipe will be very difficult. Snape said it was in a book called _Moste Potente Potions_ and it's bound to be in the Restricted Section of the library."

There was only one way to get out a book from the Restricted Section: You needed a signed note of permission from a teacher.

"Hard to see why we'd want the book, really," said Ron, "if we weren't going to try and make one of the potions."

"I think," said Hermione, "that if we made it sound as though we were just interested in the theory, we might stand a chance..."

"Oh, come on, no teacher's going to fall for that," said Ron.

"Want to bet." Faykan said with a sly grin that reminded them all of his animagus form.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

After the disastrous first lesson with the pixies, Professor Lockhart had done nothing more than read to his classes from his books. Faykan had suggested that they stop going completely, Harry and Ron agreed but Hermione wouldn't allow it. Harry was tired of being hauled to the front of the class every lesson for Lockhart's reenactments of his books, but they needed Lockhart in a good mood to trick him into giving them a note to get the potion's book. Finally the bell rang and Lockhart got to his feet.

"Homework, compose a poem about my defeat of the Wagga Wagga Werewolf, Signed copies of Magical Me to the author of the best one!"

The class began to leave. Harry returned to the back of the room, where Ron, Faykan and Hermione were waiting. When the rest of the class had filed out, Hermione approached Lockhart's desk with a piece of paper in her hand, the three boys behind her.

"Err… Professor Lockhart?" she stammered. "I wanted to… to get this book out of the library, just for background reading." She held out the piece of paper, her hand shaking slightly. "But the thing is that it's in the Restricted Section of the library, so I need a teacher to sign for it. I'm sure it would help me understand what you say in Gadding with Ghouls about slow-acting venoms."

"Ah, Gadding with Ghouls!" said Lockhart, taking the note from Hermione and smiling widely at her, "Possibly my very favorite book. You enjoyed it?"

While Hermione stroked Lockhart's ego and got the note signed, Harry saw Faykan roll his eyes at the Professor's stupidity and leave the room in disgust. Finally Lockhart scrawled an enormous loopy signature on the note and handed it back to Hermione. Harry and Ron followed her out to find Faykan sitting down the corridor waiting. As they approached, he stood and examined the note Hermione had in her hand. "See," he said to Ron, "Told you it would be easy."

It took twenty minutes for them to retrieve the book, because Madam Pince took an extra long time to studying their note, and then finding the book. Five minutes later, they were barricaded in Moaning Myrtle's out of order bathroom once again. Hermione had overridden Faykan's objections by pointing out that it was the last place anyone in their right minds would go, so they were guaranteed some privacy. Thankfully Moaning Myrtle was crying noisily in her stall, so they were ignoring her, and she them.

"This is the most complicated potion I've ever seen," said Hermione as they scanned the recipe. "Lacewing flies, leeches, fluxweed, and knotgrass," she murmured, running her finger down the list of ingredients. "Well, they're easy enough, they're in the student store cupboard, we can help ourselves... Oh, look, powdered horn of a bicorn, don't know where we're going to get that, shredded skin of a boomslang. That'll be tricky, too and of course a bit of whomever we want to change into..." Ron got a disgusted look on his face. Faykan perked up for a moment, "Oh yeah, Ron," Ron turned to him, and threw up his hands as Faykan punched him several times in the chest and arms as hard as he could, "Next time you tease me, you'll find spiders in your bed…" Faykan said icily. Ron grimaced and rubbed his now sore torso.

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	6. Chapter 5

**Thank you to those who review Chapter Four. Special thanks to my beta reader crystalpurity for editing this Chapter, spotting several things to add that I hadn't considered. Please Review, it makes the chapter beast not eat my story.**

**Chapter Five**

**Attacks and Parseltounges**

A roar of noise greeted them as they walked out onto the pitch. It was all cheers, coming from the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students eager to see a Slytherin defeat, and of course, their Gryffindor housemates. On the opposite side of the field, the Slytherins and their supporters were making their noise heard, matching the scarlet half in both intensity and volume.

Madame Hooch, who was refereeing the match, asked the captains of the teams to shake hands. Flint and Wood stepped out of their lines and shook hands slightly harder than necessary, giving each other dirty looks in the process.

"On my whistle," said Madam Hooch. "Three ... two ... one. . .

With a roar from the crowd to speed them upward, the fourteen players rose toward the leaden sky. Draco flew higher than any of them but Harry, and both Seekers scanned the skies for the Snitch, their eyes squinted almost comically to be able to see better.

"All right there, Harry?" yelled Draco as he shot underneath him to get a better view of the opposite side of the pitch. Harry had no time to reply, because that very moment, a heavy black Bludger came pelting toward him; he narrowly avoided receiving it in the head.

"Close one, Harry!" said one of the Weasley twins, streaking past him with his club in his hand, ready to knock the Bludger back toward a Slytherin player. Draco saw the twin give the Bludger a powerful whack in the direction of Adrian Pucey, but the heavy iron ball changed direction in midair and shot back, headed straight for Harry again. Harry dropped quickly to avoid it, and Fred-or-George managed to hit it hard toward Draco. Once again, the Bludger swerved like a boomerang and carved a path through the air towards the Gryffindor Seeker.

Harry put on a burst of speed and zoomed toward the other end of the pitch, the Bludger hot on his tail. 'What is going on?' Draco thought as he watched. Bludgers never concentrated on one player like this; it was their job to try and unseat as many people as possible... The other Weasley twin was waiting for the Bludger at the other end. Harry ducked as Weasley swung at the Bludger with all his might and knocked it off course.

The three Gryffindor players finally got the attention of their captain to get a timeout. Madam Hooch's whistle rang out and Harry and the twin Weasleys dived for the ground, still trying to avoid the mad Bludger. They huddled on the side of the field, probably talking about the rogue ball. Draco was worried, but he had to keep an icy uncaring demeanor now that he was around Flint, who his father had set to watch out for (or spy on) him.

Moments later Madam Hooch resumed the game, just as the rain started falling heavily. On her whistle, Draco kicked hard into the air and heard the telltale whoosh of the rogue Bludger going after Harry. Higher and higher the Seekers climbed. Draco watched Harry loop and swoop, spiral, zigzag, roll, and do all sorts of crazy maneuvers to avoid the Bludger. He could hear laughter from the crowd at his antics and a few worried yells, but the rogue Bludger was heavy and couldn't change direction as quickly as Harry could. He began a kind of roller-coaster ride around the edges of the stadium keeping ahead of the speeding ball.

Draco sped after him, "Sure you don't need any help, Harry?" he yelled as his friend was forced to do a stupid kind of twirl in midair to dodge the Bludger, and flee, the black ball trailing a few feet behind him, and then, staring back at Draco in panic, Harry was frozen for an agonizing moment when…

WHAM.

Harry had stayed still a second too long. The Bludger had hit him at last. It had smashed into his elbow, and Draco saw Harry's arm break. Harry swerved out of the way as the Bludger came round for a second attack. Through a haze of rain he dived right at Draco.

"What the…?" he gasped, careening out of Harry's way just in time to avoid the Bludger-turned-missile.

Harry had taken his remaining hand off his broom and made a wild snatch; falling straight onto the ground at the same time. With a splattering thud he hit the mud and rolled off his broom. His arm was hanging at a very strange angle. Draco could see the Snitch clutched in his other hand. Gryffindor had—quite unsurprisingly—won again.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry came around, rain falling on his face, still lying on the field, with someone leaning over him. He saw the telltale glitter of white teeth.

"Oh, no, not you," he moaned.

"Doesn't know what he's saying," said Lockhart loudly to the anxious crowd of Gryffindors pressing around them. "Not to worry, Harry. I'm about to fix your arm."

"No!" said Harry. "I'll keep it like this, thanks..."

He tried to sit up, but the pain was terrible. He heard a familiar clicking noise nearby.

"I don't want a photo of this, Colin," he said loudly.

"Lie back, Harry," said Lockhart soothingly. "It's a simple charm I've used countless times…"

"Why can't I just go to the hospital wing?" asked Harry through clenched teeth.

"Stand back," said Lockhart, who was rolling up his jade green sleeves.

"No, don't…" said Harry weakly, but Lockhart was twirling his wand and a second later had directed it straight at Harry's arm. A strange and unpleasant sensation started at Harry's shoulder and spread all the way down to his fingertips. It felt as though his arm was being deflated. He didn't dare look at what was happening. He had shut his eyes, his face turned away from his arm, but his worst fears were realized as the people above him gasped and Colin Creevey began clicking away madly. His arm didn't hurt anymore, nor did it feel remotely like an arm.

"Ah," said Lockhart. "Yes. Well, that can sometimes happen. But the point is...the bones are no longer broken." He gave a little nervous laugh while the students surrounding him exclaimed in shock at the state of Harry's arm. "That's the thing to bear in mind. So, Harry, just toddle up to the hospital wing, ah, Mr. Undol, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger, would you escort him? Madam Pomfrey will be able to, err… tidy you up a bit."

As Harry got to his feet, he felt strangely lopsided. Taking a deep breath he looked down at his right side. What he saw nearly made him pass out again. Poking out of the end of his robes was what looked like a thick, flesh colored rubber glove. He tried to move his fingers, but nothing happened.

Lockhart hadn't mended Harry's bones.

He had removed them.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco caught up to Faykan just as he was leaving the Hospital Wing. "How's Harry doing?" he asked tentatively. Faykan explained how Professor Lockhart had _accidentally_ vanished all the bones in Harry's arm and that he needed to stay overnight while Madam Pomfrey regrew them. After taking a look to see if any teachers were around, Faykan leaned over and whispered to Draco "I have some stuff to ask you, about Nott…"

Draco was confused. "What about him?"

Taking another secretive look around, Faykan led Draco to an empty classroom. When he had shut the door and made sure that nobody was listening outside, he finally spoke again. "Ron, Hermione and Harry have a suspicion that Nott might be the Heir of Slytherin, I want to ask you if he's been bragging about anything or being extraordinarily sneaky lately?"

Draco shook his head. "No, he's not been acting out of the ordinary that I've seen, but I don't really hang around him and his group very often anymore."

Faykan nodded slowly, "That's what Ron thought when I suggested we have you spy on them for us, which leads to my next question… Draco what are you going to be doing over the Christmas holiday?"

Draco raised an eyebrow, "I was going to stay here at Hogwarts actually. Why?"

Faykan's smile widened, and he began to explain Hermione's scheme with the Polyjuice Potion and how it wouldn't be ready for a month. "So we need the hair of four different Slytherins. Harry and Ron will probably go for Crabbe and Goyle, Hermione would need a girl's, and I was hoping if I could get you to willingly give over some of your hair along with a set of your robes and shoes, We'll get the specific day and time for you later, but for the hour that we're questioning Nott, you need to make sure that you are not anywhere near the Slytherin common room. Oh and well need its password and location," he added, thinking of that at the last second.

"That's quite a devious and highly dangerous plan you Gryffindors have cooked up." Draco said thoughtfully. After considering it for a few seconds, he said, "Alright, I'm in. But if you lot get caught I was stunned and locked in a broom cupboard. Got it?"

"How very Slytherin of you, my dear Draco," Faykan laughed.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry's stay in the hospital wing was—to put it lightly—highly eventful. He was woken in the middle of the night by a strange creature by the name of Dobby, and after some talking, the tiny 'house elf' had admitted to both closing the barrier back before school started and to causing the Bludger to relentlessly pursue Harry during the Quidditch match. The poor thing had said over and over again that he had done both to protect 'Mister Harry Potter', because "very terrible things are happening at Hogwarts!" No matter how much he prodded, Harry could not get the pitiful creature to reveal what kind of things. Every time Dobby got close to hinting at what was to come, he would start to punish himself by trying to beat himself senseless with anything within arm's reach. Finally, the house elf vanished when Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall brought in the petrified body of Colin Creevey.

Harry was finally released from the Hospital Wing Sunday morning and wandered the castle, looking for Ron, Hermione and Faykan. He finally found them in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Faykan and—surprisingly—Draco were guarding the door, while Ron and Hermione had started work on the potion.

"It's Harry," Faykan explained, closing the door after Harry was allowed in. There was a clunk, a splash, and a gasp from within one of the stalls and he saw Hermione peering around the open door.

"Harry!" she said. "You gave us such a fright! Come in, how's your arm?"

"Fine," said Harry, squeezing into the stall after her. An old cauldron was perched on the toilet, and a crackling from under the rim told Harry they had lit a fire beneath it. Conjuring up portable, waterproof fires was a specialty of Hermione's.

"We'd have gone to visit you, but we decided to get started on the Polyjuice Potion," Ron explained. "We've decided this is the safest place to hide it."

"You mean _you_ decided," called Faykan from the door, but Hermione and Ron ignored him.

Harry recounted the events of the previous night to his friends. Draco and Faykan exchanged a look at the mention of Dobby the house elf.

"The sooner we get a confession out of Nott, the better," snarled Ron. "D'you know what I think? He was in such a foul temper after the Quidditch match that he took it out on Colin."

"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened before?" Hermione asked, ignoring Ron's accusations.

"This settles it," said Ron in a triumphant voice. "Nott's father must've opened the Chamber when he was at school here and now he's told dear Theo how to do it. It's obvious. I kinda wish this Dobby had told you what kind of monster's in there though. I want to know how come nobody's noticed it sneaking around the school."

"Maybe it can make itself invisible," said Hermione, prodding leeches to the bottom of the cauldron. "Or maybe it can disguise itself, pretend to be a suit of armor or something. I've read about Chameleon Ghouls—"

"You read too much, Hermione," interrupted Ron, pouring dead lacewings on top of the leeches. He crumpled up the empty bag that had contained the lacewings and looked at Harry.

"So Dobby stopped us from getting on the train and broke your arm." He shook his head. "You know what, Harry? If he doesn't stop trying to 'save your life' he's going to kill you."

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Three weeks into December, Severus Snape found himself hoodwinked into 'assisting' Lockhart with a dueling club. It had not been a good month for Severus, as only last week someone—he believed it was either Potter or Undol—had thrown a Filibuster's Firework into a cauldron of Swelling Solution, causing the whole lot to explode over the entire classroom. And now he was being forced to work right alongside this _fraud_. Severus was furious to say the least.

Lockhart waved an arm for silence and called "Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!" He clapped his hands together, and began in earnest. "Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions. For full details, see my published works."

There was a general muttering from the surrounding students. Severus noted that Potter and his gang were in attendance, as far from Lockhart as possible.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," continued Lockhart, flashing a wide smile in Severus' direction. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry. You'll still have your Potions Master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

The Potion Master's upper lip curled as he glared at Lockhart, who simply continued to smile mindlessly at the crowd of students.

Lockhart and Severus turned to face each other and bowed; at least, Lockhart did, with much twirling of his hands, whereas Severus simply jerked his head irritably. They then raised their wands in front of them, almost like swords.

"As you can see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position," Lockhart told the silent crowd. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."

Severus bared his teeth, wishing he could 'accidentally' send an Unforgivable or two towards the over-showy professor.

"One... Two… Three!"

Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent. Severus cried, "_Expelliarmus!_" There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet. He flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl unceremoniously into a heap on the floor.

Severus could hear Nott and some of the other Slytherins cheering. Curiously, as he glanced over the crowd, he could see Potter, Weasley and Undol grinning widely. Apparently their mistrust for him was far exceeded by Lockhart's idiocy.

Lockhart was unsteadily getting to his feet. His hat had fallen off and his wavy hair was standing on end.

"Well, there you have it!" he said cheerfully, tottering back onto the platform. "That was a Disarming Charm… as you see, I've lost my wand… ah, thank you, Miss Brown… yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy, however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see."

Severus glared at him again. Possibly Lockhart finally noticed, because he said, "Enough demonstrating! Let's have a volunteer pair. Uh, Undol, Weasley…"

"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart," Severus interjected. "Weasley's wand causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending what's left of Undol up to the hospital wing in a matchbox. How about pairing Mr. Nott with Mr. Undol?" Severus added with a twisted smile.

"Excellent idea!" said Lockhart, gesturing Nott and Undol into the middle of the hall as the crowd backed away to give them room. "Now, Mr. Undol," said Lockhart. "When Theodore points his wand at you, you do this."

He raised his own wand, attempted a complicated sort of wiggling action, and dropped it. Severus smirked as Lockhart quickly picked it up, saying, "Whoops… it appears my wand is a little overexcited." Severus moved closer to Nott, bent down, and whispered in his ear, "Undol is a strong caster. Give him your most powerful spells—just nothing illegal." Nott smirked, glaring across at his opponent. Undol grinned back at them, completely ignoring whatever Lockhart was trying to teach him. Severus was looking forward to seeing what Undol could pull off. Nott was probably going to be in a lot of pain very soon, but it wouldn't matter to him, as long as he had an inkling of what sort of magician he had on his hands.

"Scared?" muttered Nott to Undol, so that Lockhart couldn't hear him, but Severus had no problems overhearing the two boys.

"Terrified," said Undol sarcastically out of the corner of his mouth.

"Three… Two… One… Go!" Lockhart shouted just then. "_Diffindo_," Nott yelled, slashing his wand towards Undol's chest. He followed up with a pair of stinging hexes, but Undol dodged and deflected each spell without effort. He then retaliated with a bright orange blast from his wand that hit Nott in the stomach, making him double over in pain. Nott recovered quickly, and retaliated with a Blasting Hex, which caught Undol in the shin, but the boy did not go down.

"I said disarm only!" Lockhart shouted in alarm over the heads of the two battling students, and Severus actually grinned when Undol threw a spell behind him to disarm the foolish Professor once again.

"Stop! Stop!" screamed Lockhart as he scrambled for his fallen wand, but neither boy listened as they continued to throw spells and curses at each other. The air became thick with smoke and fumes as spells went wild, colliding with each other and bouncing around the room. It was a truly remarkable display, and most of the students were wide eyed with awe at the two dueling boys.

Nott finally raised his wand quickly and bellowed, "_Serpensortia!_" The end of his wand exploded in a burst of color and smoke. Severus watched as a long black snake shot out of it, fell heavily onto the floor between the two boys, and raised its head, ready to strike. There were screams as the crowd backed swiftly away, clearing the floor.

"Don't move, Undol," said Severus lazily, enjoying the sight of the boy standing motionless, eye to eye with the angry snake. "I'll get rid of it..."

"Allow me!" shouted Lockhart. He flourished his newly re-reacquired wand at the snake and there was a loud bang. The snake, instead of vanishing, flew ten feet into the air and fell back to the floor with a loud smack. Enraged and now hissing furiously, it slithered straight toward Potter and raised itself again, fangs exposed, and poised to strike.

Severus wasn't sure if he could stop the snake before it bit Potter. Just as he brandished his wand and prepared to get rid of the serpent, Potter opened his mouth as if to speak, but an odd hissing and sputtering emerged. It seemed to catch the snake off guard, and it turned to a Hufflepuff boy next to Potter. But Potter kept speaking and the snake started to lie down, pacified.

"What do you think you're playing at?" the Hufflepuff shouted at Potter, and the boy turned and stormed out of the hall. Severus stepped forward, waved his wand, and the snake vanished in a small puff of black smoke. He too, was looking at Potter in an amazed way. It seemed there was more in common between Potter and the Dark Lord than anyone had guessed.

Undol and Weasley tugged on Potter's robes and dragged him from the hall amidst mutterings from the other students present. Severus had hoped to expose Undol's powers—which he did, to an extent. The boy's dueling skills were exceptional and all of his spells had been silent, but apparently Potter was hiding some secret abilities as well. 'Albus will probably want to know about this,' Severus thought.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry didn't have a clue about what was going on, and nobody explained anything until they had dragged him all the way up to the empty Gryffindor common room. Then Ron pushed Harry into an armchair and said, "You're a Parselmouth. Why didn't you tell us?"

"I'm a _what_?" asked Harry.

Faykan paled, and turning to Ron, he said slowly, "He doesn't know… I completely forgot to tell him." He turned back to Harry as he explained. "That day, at the zoo when you spoke to the boa constrictor, I was going to tell you but Dudley shoved us to the ground. You can speak to snakes Harry, it's an incredibly rare ability."

"This is bad," Ron said faintly.

"What's bad?" asked Harry, starting to feel quite angry. "What's wrong with everyone? Listen, if I hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin…"

Ron explained that no one could understand what Harry had said, as it had all sounded like a snake's hissing. Hermione added that it was bad for Harry because Salazar Slytherin was famous for being a Parselmouth. When Hermione commented that it might even be possible for Harry to be a descendant of Slytherin, Harry saw Faykan turn to stare into space, a frown etched on his face.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry had decided to speak to Justin the next day at Herbology, but the class was cancelled due to the snowstorm that arrived in the night. Harry fretted about this next to the fire in the Gryffindor common room, while Ron and Hermione used their time off to play a game of wizard chess and Faykan read through a Herbology book he had borrowed from Neville earlier.

"For heaven's sake, Harry," said Hermione, exasperated, as one of Ron's bishops wrestled her knight off his horse and dragged him off the board. "Go and find Justin if it's so important to you. Just stop fidgeting like that."

Faykan snapped the book shut as Harry stood, and raced after him, catching up to his friend as he exited through the portrait hole. "I'll help you look for him if you'd like," he offered cheerfully. "Perhaps the library would be a good start?"

Justin was not in the library. When Faykan and Harry entered, they saw several Hufflepuffs sitting at the back talking to each other in hushed voices, leaning close together comparatively. The two Gryffindors snuck closer, hiding behind a bookshelf in the Invisibility section to listen in.

"So anyway," a stout boy was saying, "I told Justin to hide up in our dormitory. I mean to say, if Potter's marked him down as his next victim, it's best if he keeps a low profile for a while. Of course, Justin's been waiting for something like this to happen ever since he let slip to Potter he was Muggleborn. Justin actually told him he'd been down for Eton. That's not the kind of thing you bandy about with Slytherin's heir on the loose, is it?"

"You definitely think it is Potter, then, Ernie?" said a girl with blonde pigtails anxiously.

"Hannah," said the stout boy solemnly, "he's a Parselmouth. Everyone knows that's the mark of a Dark wizard. Have you ever heard of a decent one who could talk to snakes? They called Slytherin himself 'Serpent Tongue'." There was some heavy murmuring at this, and Ernie went on, "Remember what was written on the wall? Enemies of the Heir, Beware. Potter had some sort of run in with Filch. Next thing we know, Filch's cat's attacked. That first year, Creevey, was annoying Potter at the Quidditch match, taking pictures of him while he was lying in the mud. Next thing we know, Creevey's been attacked."

"He always seems so nice, though," said Hannah uncertainly, "and, well, he's the one who made You-Know-Who disappear. He can't be all bad, can he?"

Ernie lowered his voice mysteriously, and the Hufflepuffs bent closer, and Harry edged nearer so that he could catch Ernie's words. "No one knows how he survived that attack from You-Know-Who. I mean to say, he was only a baby when it happened. He should have been blasted into smithereens. Only a really powerful Dark wizard could have survived a curse like that." He dropped his voice more until it was barely more than a whisper, and added, "That's probably why You-Know-Who wanted to kill him in the first place. He didn't want another Dark Lord competing with him. I wonder what other powers Potter's been hiding…"

Harry couldn't take any more. Clearing his throat loudly, he stepped out from behind the bookshelves with Faykan right behind him, wand in hand. If Harry hadn't been feeling so angry, he would have found the sight that greeted him quite funny: Every one of the Hufflepuffs looked as though they had been petrified by the sight of him, and the color was draining out of Ernie's face.

"Hello," Faykan said after glancing at Harry, "we're looking for Justin Finch-Fletchley."

The Hufflepuffs' worst fears had clearly been confirmed. They all looked fearfully at Ernie.

"What do you want with him?" asked Ernie in a quavering voice, watching Harry.

"We wanted to talk to him about the events of the Dueling Club," said Faykan.

Ernie bit his pale bloodless lips and then, taking a deep breath, said, "We were all there. We saw what happened."

"Then you noticed that after I spoke to it, the snake backed off?" said Harry, fighting to restrain his anger.

"All I saw," said Ernie stubbornly, though he was trembling as he spoke, "was you speaking Parseltongue and chasing the snake toward Justin."

"Harry didn't chase it at him!" Faykan said, his voice shaking with anger. "It didn't even touch him!"

"It was a very near miss," said Ernie. "And in case you're getting ideas," he added hastily, "I might tell you that you can trace my family back through nine generations of witches and warlocks and my blood's as pure as anyone's, so…"

"I don't care what sort of blood you've got!" said Harry fiercely. "Why would I want to attack Muggleborns?"

"I've heard you hate those Muggles you live with," said Ernie swiftly.

"It's not possible to live with the Dursleys and not hate them," said Harry. "I'd like to see you try it."

He turned on his heel and stormed out of the library, dragging Faykan by the wrist as the boy looked ready to hex Ernie into next month.

Striding blindly through the corridors, Harry almost ran into Hagrid. He only managed to stop in time because Faykan pulled him up short.

"Oh, hello, Hagrid," Harry said, looking up.

Hagrid's face was entirely hidden by a woolly, snow covered balaclava, but it couldn't possibly be anyone else, as he filled most of the corridor in his moleskin overcoat. A dead rooster was hanging from one of his massive, gloved hands.

"All righ', Harry, Faykan?" he asked, pulling up the balaclava so he could speak. "Why aren't yeh in class?"

"It was canceled." Faykan said, then, glancing at the dead rooster, asked, "What's that for?"

Hagrid looked at the limp rooster, as if barely remembering that he was holding it.

"Second one killed this term," he explained. "It's must be foxes, I've been seeing this big black one hangin' round the castle, an' I need the Headmaster's permission ter put a charm around the hen coop."

Faykan looked away nervously while Hagrid peered more closely at Harry from under his thick, snow flecked eyebrows.

"Yeh sure yeh're all righ' Harry? Yeh look all hot an' bothered…"

Harry couldn't bring himself to repeat what Ernie and the rest of the Hufflepuffs had been saying about him, so he simply said that he was fine.

"We'd better get going, Hagrid, it's Transfiguration next and we got to pick up our books."

With that the two boys walked off, leaving Hagrid and his dead rooster in the corridor. Harry's mind was still full of what Ernie had said about him as he and Faykan climbed up the stairs and turned down another particularly dark corridor, made so by the extinguished torches. They were halfway down the hallway when Harry tripped headlong over something lying on the floor.

"Harry, are you…" Faykan said as he turned to help Harry up, stopping as he noticed what his friend had tripped over.

Justin Finch-Fletchley was laying on the floor, rigid and cold, a look of shock frozen on his face, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. And that wasn't all. Next to him was another figure, the strangest sight Harry had ever seen.

It was Nearly Headless Nick, no longer pearly white and transparent, but black and smoky, floating immobile and horizontal, six inches off the floor. His head was half off and his face wore an expression of shock identical to Justin's.

Faykan pulled Harry to his feet, their breathing very fast and shallow, while Harry's heart was doing a kind of drum roll inside his ribcage. As Harry looked up and down the hall for any signs of what had petrified Justin and Nick, he saw Faykan kneel next to Justin's motionless body and wave his wand over the frozen boy, muttering, "_elea amin mani templa sina edan umartempla yassen._"[1] Faykan's eyes seemed to gloss over, and he remained there frozen in a trancelike state for several moments. Harry was ready to start panicking when he heard a familiar wheezing voice behind him.

"Caught in the act Potter," Harry spun to see Filch stepping out of the shadows. The caretaker smiled a yellow toothy grin, "I'll have you out this time boy, mark my words…" With that he disappeared down the corridor as Harry called out that it wasn't what it looked like.

Harry was about to chase after Filch when he heard Faykan gasp in shock and jerk back, falling to the floor. He stared wildly around, wide eyed until he spotted Harry, just as Professor McGonagall rounded the corner. She took one look at Harry, and turned to Faykan kneeling on the floor with his wand out.

"This way Potter, Undol," she said slowly.

"Professor," Harry said abruptly, "I swear we didn't…"

"This is out of my hands Potter," she replied curtly.

They marched behind her in silence and Professor McGonagall stopped before a large and extremely ugly stone gargoyle.

"Lemon drop!" she said. This was evidently a password, because the gargoyle suddenly sprang to life and hopped aside as the wall behind him split in two. Even full of dread for what was coming, Harry couldn't fail to be amazed. A glance at Faykan, however, showed that his friend was completely unimpressed. Behind the wall was a spiral staircase that was moving smoothly upward, like an escalator. As he, Faykan and Professor McGonagall stepped onto it; Harry heard the wall thud closed behind them. They rose upward in circles, higher and higher, until at last, slightly dizzy, Harry spotted a gleaming oak door ahead, with a brass knocker in the shape of a griffin. Harry realized that he was being led to Dumbledore's office.

[1] _elea amin mani templa sina edan umartempla yassen: show me what magic this man is cursed with_

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	7. Chapter 6

**Thank to the people who reviewed Chapter five. I hope more people will get into the mood of giving feedback, it makes me ever so happy. and you know, happy author = better story. Special thanks to Crystalpurity again, my devoted Betareader!**

**Chapter Six**

**Mysteries Deepen**

Harry and Faykan stepped off the stone staircase behind Professor McGonagall, and waited apprehensively as she rapped her knuckles on the wooden door. It opened silently, and the trio entered the office. Professor McGonagall told the two to wait and left them alone, presumably in search of Professor Dumbledore.

Harry decided to take a look around, and wandered off, leaving Faykan standing alone in the middle of the room. It was quite large, beautiful, but above all, entrancing. Quirky and decidedly strange noises came from every direction. A number of curious silver instruments stood on spindle-legged tables, whirring and occasionally emitting little puffs of smoke. Every inch of the wall was covered with portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses, all of whom were snoozing gently in their frames. In the center of it all was an enormous claw-footed desk, and, sitting on a shelf behind it, a shabby tattered wizard's hat: the Sorting Hat.

Harry was just wondering if he should put the Sorting Hat on again and ask if he had been placed in the correct house, when a strange, gagging noise drew his attention to a golden perch behind the door. Faykan was standing next to the perch, and sitting on it was something that looked like a half-plucked turkey. Harry stared at it, and the bird glared back balefully, making the gagging noise again. It looked quite ill. Its eyes were dull and, even as Harry watched, a couple more feathers fell out of its tail.

"Is it alright?" he asked Faykan as he joined him to look at the bird. It would be all he needed if Dumbledore's pet bird died while they were alone in his office.

"It will be," Faykan said, just as the bird burst into flames. Harry yelled in shock and stepped back, but Faykan remained where he was as the bird turned into a fireball, gave a loud shriek and disappeared into a smoldering pile of ashes in a tray beneath the perch.

"Harry, relax. It's a phoenix," Faykan said as he bent to ward the pile of ashes. "When they die, they burst into flames and are reborn from the ashes." He dusted a light layer of the ashes aside, revealing a tiny newborn bird.

"It's a shame you had to see Fawkes on a Burning Day," said a voice behind the two boys, who turned to see Dumbledore in the process of seating himself behind his desk. "He's really very handsome most of the time, such wonderful red and gold plumage. Rather fascinating creatures, phoenixes. They can carry immensely heavy loads, their tears have remarkable healing powers, and they make highly faithful pets."

Before Dumbledore could speak another word, however, the door of the office flew open with an almighty bang and Hagrid burst in, a wild look in his eyes, his balaclava perched on top of his shaggy black head and the dead rooster still swinging from his hand as he urgently ranted about how he had spoken to Harry and Faykan minutes before Justin was found and that it couldn't have been either of them who attacked the boy. Dumbledore could not get a word in edgewise.

"Hagrid!" Dumbledore finally half shouted. "I do not believe that either of these boys attacked anyone."

"Oh," said Hagrid, the rooster falling limply at his side. "Right, I'll wait outside then, Headmaster."

And he stomped out looking embarrassed.

"You don't think it was us, Professor?" Harry repeated hopefully as Dumbledore brushed stray rooster feathers off his desk.

"No, Harry, I don't," said Dumbledore, though his face was somber again. "But I still want to talk to you both."

"I must ask you, boys, whether there is anything you'd like to tell me," he said gently, "anything at all."

Harry had no idea what to say. Thoughts of Nott, the Polyjuice potion and the voice that he had heard twice this term swirled in his head. Looking at Faykan, Harry saw that his friend was looking pointedly away from Dumbledore and shook his head. "No, there isn't anything Professor…" Harry said.

"Very well Harry, you may go." Harry and Faykan turned to leave, but Dumbledore called Faykan back. "Mister Undol, if I may have a few more private words with you." Harry watched the door swing closed in his face, blocking his view of Faykan and Dumbledore.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

When the door to his office had closed, Albus regarded the boy standing before him, determinedly avoiding meeting the Professor's gaze. Young Mr. Undol was a small, thin boy, smaller then even Harry. His black hair was kept shoulder-length, and he held himself with a supreme sense of confidence. This troubled Albus, 'how can one who appears so young seem so mature and wise' he mused inwardly.

"Faykan," Albus finally began after a few moments of silence, and the boy cleared his throat in a way of acknowledgement. "I wanted to ask you a few questions regarding your relationship with Harry." The boy raised one eyebrow, mildly surprised at this development.

"I've heard from Arabella Figg that you arrived at her home five summers ago and immediately befriended Harry Potter, remaining close by him ever since." Albus knew a lot more than that from Mrs. Figg. She had reported of Faykan showing up on her doorstep out of the blue, with some story of the abrupt death of his parents, and of him requesting to stay with her for a short time. He had sought out Harry Potter and spent the next three years constantly by his side. The boy had evidently even taken young Harry to Diagon Alley for his first year supplies.

"Yes, that's true, Headmaster." Faykan replied continuing to look anywhere, at the portraits, at the Sorting Hat, at the golden perch by the door—anywhere besides Albus' eyes.

"What I'd like to know is how you found out where Harry lived, and your intentions with him." Albus stared straight into the boy's face, trying to peer into his mind, to see the truth in those crystal blue eyes.

Faykan faced Albus at last. "I have no idea what you mean Professor. I found Harry by happy chance. I remain by him because he completes me, gives me purpose." Albus gazed into the boy's mind, trying to find the true answers he sought. What he found was unexpected. Mist surrounded the boy's thoughts, hiding them from the great wizard's view. Albus could do no more than blindly grab at stray memories and ideas, which gave him little to work with. Faykan's mind was well organized and defended; catching the boy off guard to read his mind would prove very difficult. But Albus was prepared. He pushed a false memory into the mind, a memory of suffering, of pain. It worked perfectly, drawing enough of Faykan's attention for Albus to siphon off a single memory undetected, and retreating. Twin voices rang in his mind, one deep and powerfully resonating, the other high and piercing. "_The sleeper must be awakened, or the world is lost…_"

Albus eyed Faykan, who, slightly shaken, was glaring angrily at the Headmaster. "Was that really necessary, Professor?" he asked, before storming out of the office, slamming the door behind him. Albus merely smiled, his mind trying to work out the information that he had gleaned from the boy's mind.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The double attack on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick turned the general mood of nervousness and unease into full-blown panic. Curiously, it was Nearly Headless Nick's fate that seemed to worry people most. 'What could possibly do that to a ghost?' people asked each other; 'What terrible power could harm someone who was already dead?' There was almost a stampede to book seats on the Hogwarts Express so that students could go home for Christmas. Ron commented that he, Harry, Faykan, Hermione, Draco, Nott, Crabbe and Goyle would be the only ones left at the castle at the rate people were vacating. Harry was rather glad that most people were leaving the castle; he was tired of everyone muttering about him when he passed them in the corridors.

At last the term ended, and Harry found the silence rather peaceful. He rather enjoyed that he, along with Faykan, Hermione and the Weasleys, had full run of Gryffindor Tower, meaning that they could play loud games of Exploding Snap or practice dueling in private.

Christmas morning dawned cold and white. Harry, Faykan and Ron, the only ones left in their dormitory, were woken very early by Hermione, who burst in, fully dressed with a pile of presents in her arms.

"Wake up," she said loudly, pulling back the curtains at the window.

"Hermione, you're not supposed to be in here…" said Ron, shielding his eyes against the light.

"Merry Christmas to you, too," said Hermione, throwing him his present. "I've been up for nearly an hour, adding more lacewings to the potion. It's ready."

Harry sat up, suddenly wide awake.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive," said Hermione, shifting Scabbers the rat so that she could sit down on the end of Ron's four-poster. "If we're going to do it, I say it should be tonight."

At that moment, Hedwig swooped into the room, carrying a very small package in her beak. She nibbled Harry's ear in an affectionate sort of way, which was a far better present than the one that she had brought him, which turned out to be from the Dursleys. They had sent Harry a toothpick and a note telling him to find out whether he'd be able to stay at Hogwarts for the summer vacation too.

The rest of Harry's Christmas presents were far more satisfactory. Hagrid had sent him a large tin of treacle fudge, which Harry decided to soften by the fire before eating. Ron had given him a book called _'Flying with the Cannons', _filled with interesting facts about his favorite Quidditch team. Hermione had bought him a luxury eagle-feather quill and Faykan had given a small crystal phial filled with a translucent liquid that gave off a pale glow. Glancing at his friend in amusement and delight, Harry watched as Faykan unwrapped what looked like a dagger, silvery white with runes written on the blade. Faykan's eyes widened as he looked at it and he ran a hand lovingly down the side of the blade. Harry finally opened the last present to find a new, hand-knitted sweater from Mrs. Weasley and a large plum cake. He read her card with a fresh surge of guilt, thinking about Mr. Weasley's car and the bout of rule-breaking that he, Faykan and Ron were planning next.

The Great Hall looked magnificent that evening at dinner. Not only were there a dozen frost-covered Christmas trees and thick streamers of holly and mistletoe crisscrossing the ceiling, but enchanted snow was falling, warm and dry, from the ceiling. Dumbledore led them in a few of his favorite carols—Hagrid booming more and more loudly with every goblet of egg nog he consumed. Percy, who hadn't noticed that Fred had bewitched his prefect badge so that it now read '_Pinhead_', kept asking them all what they were sniggering at. Harry didn't even care that Nott was making loud, snide remarks about his and Faykan's new sweaters from the Slytherin table. With a bit of luck, Nott would be getting his comeuppance in a few hours' time.

Harry had barely finished his third helping of pudding when Hermione ushered him and Ron out of the hall to finalize their plans for the evening. In the entrance hall they found Draco and Faykan waiting for them. "We still need a bit of the people you're changing into," said Hermione, as though she were sending them to the supermarket for laundry detergent. "And obviously, it'll be best if you can get something of Crabbe's and Goyle's; they're Nott's best friends, he'll tell them anything. And we also need to make sure the real Crabbe and Goyle can't burst in on us while we're interrogating him." Hermione continued on that she had already prepared two chocolate cakes with a simple sleeping draft for Harry and Ron to give to Crabbe and Goyle, and that they were to take some of their hairs after they were fast asleep, then lock them in a broom cupboard.

"Whose hair are you two pulling out then?" Ron said, slightly irritably.

Faykan jerked his thumb at Draco while Hermione stated that she had hair that she had gotten off of Millicent Bulstrode's robes. With that, Faykan, Draco and Hermione left to check the potion and wait for Harry and Ron to acquire their hairs.

"Have you ever heard of a plan where so many things could go wrong?" Ron said to Harry in an undertone as they turned back to the Great Hall.

Surprisingly, their first part of the plan went better than Harry or Ron could have expected. The two Gryffindors waited outside the Great Hall, and when their target Slytherins had arrived, Harry expertly levitated the two cakes in plain sight. Crabbe and Goyle noticed the cakes immediately, devoured them both greedily, and keeled backwards onto the floor, out cold.

After they had stuffed the two large Slytherins into a closet, Harry and Ron bolted to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom with their hairs, as well as Crabbe and Goyle's shoes, figuring that their feet would grow too large for their own footwear. Faykan and Draco were waiting just inside the door for them, and thick black smoke was pouring from the stall in which Hermione was stirring the cauldron.

"Did you get them?" Hermione asked breathlessly when she spotted them. When they showed her the hairs, she smiled. "Good. And I snuck these spare robes out of the laundry," Hermione said, holding up a small sack. "You'll need bigger sizes once you're Crabbe and Goyle," Hermione said, when Ron had raised his eyebrows quizzically at the sack of robes. Then, as she divided the potion into four tumblers, she explained that the once they drank the potion, they would have exactly one hour before it wore off.

A yelp of pain came from behind them, and Harry turned to see Draco rubbing at a spot on his head while glaring scathingly at Faykan, who was grinning and holding several strands of Draco's silver-blond hair in his hand.

Hermione handed them each a tumbler and they separated to add their hairs to the potion and drink it in separate stalls. Harry dropped Goyle's hair into his glass, and it frothed disgustingly, turning the khaki color of a booger.

"Ready?" he called.

"Ready," came Faykan's, Ron's and Hermione's voices.

"One… two… three…"

Pinching his nose, Harry drank the potion down in two large gulps. It tasted like overcooked cabbage. Immediately, his insides started writhing as though he'd just swallowed live snakes. Doubled up, he wondered fleetingly whether he was going to be sick, then a burning sensation spread rapidly from his stomach to the very ends of his fingers and toes. Next, bringing him gasping to all fours, came a horrible melting feeling, as the skin all over his body bubbled like hot wax. His hands began to grow before his eyes—the fingers thickened, the nails broadened, the knuckles were bulging like bolts. His shoulders stretched painfully and a prickling on his forehead told him that hair was creeping down toward his eyebrows. His robes ripped as his chest expanded like a barrel bursting its hoops, and his feet were agony in shoes four sizes too small.

As suddenly as it had started, everything stopped. Harry lay facedown on the stone cold floor, listening to Myrtle gurgling morosely in the toilet at the end of the row. With difficulty, he kicked off his shoes and stood up. So this was what it felt like, being Goyle. His large hands trembling, he pulled off his old robes, which were hanging a foot above his ankles, pulled on the spare ones, and laced up Goyle's boat-like shoes. He reached up to brush his hair out of his eyes and met only the short growth of wiry bristles, low on his forehead. Then he realized that his glasses were clouding his eyes because Goyle obviously didn't need them; he took them off and called, "Are you all okay?" Goyle's low rasp of a voice issued from his mouth.

"Yeah," came the deep grunt of Crabbe from his right. Harry unlocked his door and stepped in front of the cracked mirror. Goyle stared back at him out of dull, deep-set eyes. Harry scratched his ear. So did Goyle. Ron's door opened. They stared at each other. Ron was almost indistinguishable from Crabbe, save for the fact that he looked pale and shocked, from the pudding-bowl haircut to the long, gorilla arms.

"This is unbelievable," said Ron, approaching the mirror and prodding Crabbe's flat nose. "Unbelievable."

"I'll say," Draco said as he watched a perfect copy of himself exit the stall nearest the door. Faykan grinned at the looks he was given as he commented, "You know Draco, for a Slytherin, you don't taste so bad in Polyjuice." The real Draco started to instruct his doppelganger on the location and password to the Slytherin common room while Harry and Ron called for Hermione to hurry up.

A high pitched voice answered them.

"I… I don't think I'm going to come after all. You three go on without me."

"Hermione, we know Millicent Bulstrode's ugly, no one's going to know it's you…"

"No, really, I don't think I'll come. You three hurry up, you're wasting time."

"I'll stay with her while you go do your little investigation," Draco offered, and Harry and Ron followed Faykan as he led them out of the bathroom and down to the dungeons. They had a short run-in with Percy, which Faykan handled with ease, perfectly mimicking Draco's disdain for the pompous Gryffindor prefect. Harry was only slightly surprised by Faykan's calm exterior as they continued navigating the dungeons. 'He must have spent most of first year exploring the castle so he wouldn't get lost' Harry mused as Faykan stopped by a stretch of bare, damp wall. "Pureblood," Faykan spoke in Draco's voice, and a stone door concealed in the wall slid open, granting them entrance.

The Slytherin common room was a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them, and several Slytherins were silhouetted around it in high-backed chairs, Nott among them.

"There you are," he drawled, looking at Harry and Ron. "Have you two been pigging out in the Great Hall all this time? I've been looking for you. I want to show you something really funny, even you might have a laugh, Malfoy."

Grabbing a newspaper next to him, Nott shoved it under Faykan's nose. Faykan scanned it quickly, gave a slight snort of disbelief, and passed it to Ron and Harry. The headline read:

'_INQUIRY AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC_

_Arthur Weasley, Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office, was today fined fifty Galleons for bewitching a Muggle car._

_Mr. Lucius Malfoy, a governor of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where the enchanted car crashed earlier this year, called today for Mr. Weasley's resignation._

_"Weasley has brought the Ministry into disrepute," Mr. Malfoy told our reporter. "He is clearly unfit to draw up our laws and his ridiculous Muggle Protection Act should be scrapped immediately."_

_Mr. Weasley was unavailable for comment, although his wife told reporters to clear off or she'd set the family ghoul on them._'

"Well?" said Nott impatiently as Harry handed the clipping back to him. "Don't you think it's funny?"

"Ha, ha," said Harry bleakly.

"Arthur Weasley loves Muggles so much he should snap his wand in half and go and join them," said Nott scornfully. "You'd never know the Weasleys were purebloods, the way they behave."

Ron's, or rather, Crabbe's, face was contorted with fury.

"What's up with you, Crabbe?" snapped Nott, not missing the expression.

"Stomachache," Ron grunted.

Nott suggested that Ron go to the hospital wing, and while he was there to give the muggleborns a good kick from him. He continued to rant about how the attacks were probably being covered up by Dumbledore and that a decent headmaster wouldn't let in people like Colin Creevey. Harry took a moment to watch Faykan's reactions to Nott's behavior. Oddly enough, Faykan looked completely comfortable sitting in the darkness of the dungeons, so different from the unease that Harry could see in Ron's eyes, or feel in himself.

"Saint Potter, the Mudbloods' friend," continued Nott slowly. "He's another one with no proper wizard feeling, or he wouldn't go around with that jumped up Granger Mudblood. And people think he's Slytherin's heir!"

"Surely though," Faykan drawled in Draco's voice, while Harry and Ron waited with bated breath; the subject had been breached at last, "you have some idea who is behind these attacks Nott?"

"I wish I knew who it is," said Nott petulantly. "I could help them." He leaned forward to the other three boys, lowering his voice, "However, I do have a suspicion. I think it might be that Undol boy who's practically is attached to Potter at the hip. He seems very shady to me, some of those spells he used at the dueling club were way beyond second year. He's definitely hiding something. And I'm willing to place money on that he's either the heir of Slytherin, or he's got a thing for Potter far deeper than anyone else has noticed." Harry stole another glance at Faykan, but Draco's face had remained completely unchanged by Nott's suspicions, seemingly frozen in a mask of icy indifference.

Nott continued, completely unaware of the furtive looks passing between his three listeners, "But my father won't tell me anything about the last time the Chamber was opened either. It was fifty years ago, so it _was_ during his time, and he knows a lot about it, but all he says that it was kept quiet and it'll look suspicious if I know too much about it. But he did tell me one thing. The last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened, a Mudblood died. So I bet it's a matter of time before one of them is killed this time... I hope its Granger," he said with relish.

Faykan caught Harry's eye again, and he tapped his watch casually, letting them know it was about time for them to leave. They all stood abruptly, "Medicine for my stomach," Ron grunted at Nott's puzzled look, and without further ado, they sprinted the length of the Slytherin common room, hurled themselves at the stone wall, and dashed up the passage, hoping that Nott wouldn't follow.

By the time they reached Myrtle's bathroom, they had all changed back to their normal selves. "Well, it was a complete waste of time," Ron panted, closing the bathroom door behind them. "Not completely," Harry reminded him as he turned to Draco, who was standing in front of a central stall. "Where's Hermione, Draco? We have loads to tell you both."

"Go away!" Hermione squeaked from inside the stall.

The three Gryffindor boys looked at Draco in bewilderment.

"What's the matter?" said Ron. "She must be back to normal by now, we are…"

But Moaning Myrtle glided suddenly through the stall door. Harry had never seen her looking so happy.

"Ooooooh, wait till you see," she said. "It's awful…"

They heard the lock slide back and Hermione emerged around Draco, sobbing, her robes pulled up over her head.

"What's up?" said Ron uncertainly. "Have you still got Millicent's nose or something?"

Hermione let her robes fall and Ron backed into the sink.

Her face was covered in black fur. Her eyes had turned yellow and there were long, pointed ears poking through her hair. She explained between sobs that the Polyjuice potion was only for human transformations, and she must have accidentally pulled a cat hair off Millicent Bulstrode's robes. Myrtle continued to laugh happily at Hermione's misfortune, and it took the four boys nearly an hour to persuade her to go up to the hospital wing.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

By the time term restarted, Hermione was still in the hospital wing. Many people thought she was attacked, and groups of students constantly showed up to try and get a look at her, until Madam Pomfrey finally set curtains around her bed to give her some privacy. Harry, Ron, and Faykan visited her every morning, bringing the previous day's homework with them.

The three boys were just leaving her to head back to Gryffindor Tower to get their own work started, when they heard an angry outburst from the floor above them. "That sounds like Filch," Harry muttered at they hurried up the stairs and poked their heads around the corner to see what the commotion was about.

Filch had clearly been manning his usual lookout post, although he was nowhere in sight now. They were once again on the spot where Mrs. Norris had been attacked. They saw at a glance what Filch had been shouting about. A great flood of water stretched over half the corridor and it looked as though it was still seeping from under the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Now that Filch had stopped shouting, they could clearly hear Myrtle's wails echoing off the bathroom walls.

"Now what's up with her?" Faykan commented dryly, clearly not wanting to investigate.

"Let's go and see," said Harry, and holding their robes over their ankles he and Ron stepped through the great wash of water to the door bearing its _'OUT OF ORDER'_ sign, ignored it as always, and entered, Faykan trudging behind them, muttering about melodramatic ghosts.

Moaning Myrtle was crying, if possible, louder and harder than ever before. She seemed to be hiding down her usual toilet. It was dark in the bathroom because the candles had been extinguished in the great rush of water that had left both walls and floor soaking wet.

"What's up, Myrtle?" said Harry.

"Who's that?" glugged Myrtle miserably. "Come to throw something else at me?"

Harry waded across to her stall and said, "Why would I throw something at you?"

"Don't ask me," Myrtle shouted, emerging with a wave of yet more water, which splashed onto the already sopping floor. "Here I am, minding my own business, and someone thinks it's funny to throw a book at me...

"But it can't hurt you if someone throws something at you," said Ron, reasonably. "I mean, it'd just go right through you, wouldn't it?"

He had said the wrong thing. Myrtle puffed herself up and shrieked, "Let's all throw books at Myrtle, because she can't feel it! Ten points if you can get it through her stomach! Fifty points if it goes through her head! Well, ha, ha, ha! What a lovely game, I don't think!"

"But who threw it at you, anyway?" asked Harry.

"I don't know... I was just sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death, and it fell right through the top of my head," said Myrtle, glaring at them. "It's over there, it got washed out..."

Harry, Faykan and Ron looked under the sink where Myrtle was pointing. A small, thin book lay there. It had a shabby black cover and was as wet as everything else in the bathroom. Faykan stepped over and bent to pick it up, but withdrew his fingers right before touching it, as if electrocuted. Harry stepped forward to pick it up instead, but Ron suddenly flung out an arm to hold him back.

"What?" said Harry.

"Are you crazy?" said Ron. "It could be dangerous."

"Dangerous?" said Harry, laughing. "Come off it, how could it be dangerous?"

"You'd be surprised," Faykan said softly.

The little book lay on the floor, nondescript and soggy.

"Well, we won't find out unless we look at it," Harry said, and he ducked around Ron and picked it up off the floor.

Harry saw at once that it was a diary, and the faded year on the cover told him it was fifty years old. He opened it eagerly. On the first page he could just make out the name '_T. M. Riddle_'in smudged ink. Faykan narrowed his eyes on reading the name, and then turned away in thought.

"Hang on," said Ron suddenly, who had approached cautiously and was looking over Harry's shoulder. "I know that name... T. M. Riddle got an award for special services to the school fifty years ago."

"How on earth d'you know that?" said Harry in amazement.

"Because Filch made me polish his shield about fifty times in detention," said Ron resentfully. "That was the one I burped slugs all over. If you'd wiped slime off a name for an hour, you'd remember it, too."

Harry carefully peeled the wet pages apart. They were completely blank. There wasn't the faintest trace of writing on any of them, not even anything like '_Auntie Mabel's birthday_,' or '_dentist, half-past three_.'

"He never wrote in it," said Harry, disappointed.

"I wonder why someone wanted to flush it away…" said Ron curiously. Harry shrugged and pocketed the book.

**_REVIEW!_**


	8. Chapter 7

**Thanks to the people who Reviewed Chapter Six. And continued thanks to Crystalpurity for betaing my story. Please Review! **

**Chapter Seven**

**Tom Riddle**

Hermione left the hospital wing, de-whiskered, tail less, and fur free, at the beginning of February. On her first evening back in Gryffindor Tower, Harry showed her T. M. Riddle's diary and he, Faykan and Ron told her the story of how they had found it. She found the fact that Faykan refused to touch the little book curious, but chalked it up to the same reasoning that Ron had for wanting to leave it in Myrtle's bathroom.

"Ooh, it might have hidden powers," said Hermione enthusiastically, taking the diary and turning it over in her hands, looking it over. She figured that since the little black book was fifty years old it might hold information about the last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened, but even after using both _Aparecium _and her Revealer she couldn't find any trace of writing anywhere on the book except for the name.

Ron was convinced that Riddle never used the diary, while Harry kept wondering about why it had been in the bathroom. Faykan however, Hermione noticed, didn't speculate about the diary, but constantly asked Harry to dispose of it as quickly as possible. Coupling that with his reluctance to touch the book, Hermione was almost certain that he was _afraid_ of Riddle's diary. But despite all of the boy's pleadings Harry clung to the book like Riddle was an old friend. The four of them looked in the trophy room at the award that Riddle had received for special services to the school, but there were no clues to be found as to what services he had performed to earn it. They also found his name on an old Medal for Magical Merit as well as the list of old Head Boys, but no other clues that might point to his identity.

"He sounds like Percy," said Ron, wrinkling his nose in disgust. "Prefect, Head Boy... probably top of every class…"

"You say that like it's a bad thing," said Hermione in a feigned hurt voice while Faykan snorted with suppressed laughter.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The Heir of Slytherin didn't make a reappearance at the school during the first two weeks of February, yet most people were still convinced that Harry was the Heir, having 'given himself away' at the Dueling Club meeting. Ernie Macmillan of Hufflepuff was spreading rumors throughout the school that Harry had purposely sought out Justin, and the Faykan was most likely the monster.

Gilderoy Lockhart seemed to think that his timely intervention had made the attacks stop. Harry overheard him telling Professor McGonagall that, and that he would protect her if need be while the Gryffindors were lining up for Transfiguration.

"I don't think that there'll be any more trouble, Minerva," he said, tapping his nose knowingly and winking in what he thought was a charming way. "I think the Chamber has been locked for good this time. The culprit must have known it was only a matter of time before I caught up with him. Rather sensible to stop now, before I came down hard on him. You know, what the school needs now is a morale booster. Wash away the memories of the last term! I won't say any more just now so as to not spoil the surprise, but I think I know just the thing…"

Lockhart's idea of a morale booster became apparent at breakfast on the fourteenth as Harry and Faykan entered the Great Hall. Harry had been up quite late the previous night with Quidditch practice, and Faykan had stayed up to wait for him in the common room, so they were slightly late from sleeping in. Faykan shuddered visibly as they entered, and Harry thought that they had entered the wrong room.

The walls were covered with large and lurid pink flowers. Worse still, heart-shaped confetti was falling from the pale blue ceiling. Harry dragged Faykan over to the Gryffindor table, where Ron was sitting looking sickened, and Hermione seemed to have been overcome with giggles.

"What's going on?" Harry asked them, sitting down and wiping confetti off his bacon.

Ron pointed at the teachers' table, apparently too disgusted to speak. Lockhart, wearing bright pink robes to match the decorations, was waving for silence. The teachers on either side of him were sitting straight-backed and stony faced. From where he sat, Harry could see a muscle going in Professor McGonagall's cheek. Snape looked as though someone had just fed him a large beaker of Skele-Gro.

"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockhart shouted cheerfully. "And may I thank the forty-six people who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all… and it doesn't end here!"

Lockhart clapped his hands and a dozen surly-looking dwarves marched through the doors to the entrance hall. Not just any dwarves, however. Lockhart had them all wearing golden wings and carrying harps.

"My friendly, card carrying cupids!" beamed Lockhart. "They will be roving around the school today delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn't stop here! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any other wizard I've ever met, the sly old dog!"

Professor Flitwick buried his face in his hands. Snape was looking as though the first person to ask him for a Love Potion would be force fed poison.

All day long, the dwarves kept barging into their classes to deliver valentines, much to the annoyance of the teachers, and late that afternoon as the Gryffindors were walking upstairs for Charms, one of the dwarves caught up with Harry.

"Oy, you! 'Arry Potter!" shouted a particularly grim looking dwarf, elbowing people out of the way to get to Harry.

Hot all over at the thought of being given a valentine in front of a line of first years, which happened to include Ginny Weasley, Harry tried to escape. The dwarf, however, cut his way through the crowd by kicking people's shins, and reached him before he'd gone two paces.

"I've got a musical message to deliver to 'Arry Potter in person," he said, twanging his harp in a threatening sort of way after shoving past Faykan.

"Not here," Harry hissed, trying to escape.

"Stay still!" grunted the dwarf, grabbing hold of Harry's bag and pulling him back.

"Let me go!" Harry snarled, tugging.

With a loud ripping noise, his bag split in two. His books, wand, parchment, and quill spilled onto the floor and his ink bottle smashed over everything.

Harry scrambled around, trying to pick it all up before the dwarf started singing, causing something of a holdup in the corridor.

"What's going on here?" came the cold, drawling voice of Theodore Nott. Harry started stuffing everything feverishly into his ripped bag, desperate to get away before Nott could hear his musical valentine.

"What's all this commotion?" said another familiar voice as Percy Weasley arrived.

Losing his head, Harry tried to make a run for it, but the dwarf seized him around the knees and brought him crashing to the floor.

"Right," he said, sitting on Harry's ankles. "Here is your singing valentine:"

"_His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,_

_His hair is as dark as a blackboard._

_I wish he was mine, he's really divine,_

_The hero who conquered the Dark Lord"_

Harry would have given all the gold in Gringotts to evaporate on the spot. Faykan finally grabbed the dwarf and heaved the small man off of Harry, muttering angrily into its ear. All Harry could hear as Faykan pushed the dwarf away was, "_Ishkhaqwi ai durugnul._"[1] The dwarf looked at Faykan with a mix of surprise and anger before storming valiantly to laugh along with everyone else, Harry got up, his feet numb from the weight of the dwarf, as Percy Weasley did his best to disperse the crowd, some of whom were crying with mirth.

"Off you go, off you go, the bell rang five minutes ago, off to class, now," he said, shooing some of the younger students away. "And you, Nott…"

Harry, glancing over, saw Nott stoop and snatch up something. Leering, he showed it to Crabbe and Goyle, and Harry realized that he'd got Riddle's diary.

"Give that back," said Harry quietly.

"Wonder what Potter's written in this?" said Nott, who obviously hadn't noticed the year on the cover and thought he had Harry's own diary. A hush fell over the onlookers. Ginny was staring from the diary to Harry, looking terrified.

"Hand it over, Nott," said Percy sternly.

"When I've had a look," said Nott, waving the diary tauntingly at Harry.

Percy said, "As a school prefect…" but Harry had lost his temper. He pulled out his wand and shouted, "_Expelliarmus!_" and just as Snape had disarmed Lockhart, so Nott found the diary shooting out of his hand into the air. Grinning broadly, Ron reached out and caught it.

Percy shouted after Harry as the three younger Gryffindors moved off to Charms, but none of them listened. It wasn't until they had reached Professor Flitwick's class that Harry noticed something rather odd about Riddle's diary. All his other books were drenched in scarlet ink. The diary, however, was as clean as it had been before the ink bottle had smashed all over it. He tried to point this out to Ron, but his best friend was having trouble with his wand again; large purple bubbles were blossoming out of the end, and he wasn't much interested in anything else. Harry didn't try to tell Faykan, because he was starting to get sick of him pleading with Harry to ditch the book in a bin or burn it in the common room fireplace.

Harry sat on his four-poster that night and flicked through the blank pages, not one of which had a trace of scarlet ink on it. Then he pulled a new bottle out of his bedside cabinet, dipped his quill into it, and dropped a blot onto the first page of the diary.

The ink shone brightly on the paper for a second and then, as though it was being sucked into the page, vanished. Excited, Harry loaded up his quill a second time and wrote, '_My name is Harry Potter_.'

The words shone momentarily on the page and they, too, sank in without trace. Then, at last, something happened. Oozing back out of the page, in his very own ink, came words Harry had never written.

'_Hello, Harry Potter. My name is Tom Riddle. How did you come by my diary?_'

These words, too, faded away, but not before Harry had started to scribble back.

'_Someone tried to flush it down a toilet_.'

He waited eagerly for Riddle's reply.

'_Lucky that I recorded my memories in some more lasting way than ink, but I always knew that there would be those who would not want this diary read_.'

'_What do you mean?_' Harry scrawled, blotting the page in his excitement.

'_I mean that this diary holds memories of terrible things. Things that were covered up. Things that happened at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry._'

'_That's where I am now,_' Harry wrote quickly. '_I'm at Hogwarts, and horrible stuff's been happening. Do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets?_'

His heart was hammering. Riddle's reply came quickly, his writing becoming untidier, as though he was hurrying to tell all he knew.

'_Of course I know about the Chamber of Secrets. In my day, they told us it was a legend, that it did not exist. But this was a lie. In my fifth year, the Chamber was opened and the monster attacked several students, finally managing to kill one. I caught the person who'd opened the Chamber and he was expelled. But the Headmaster, Professor Dippet, ashamed that such a thing had happened at Hogwarts, forbade me to tell the truth. Everyone was told that the girl had died in a freak accident. They gave me a nice, shiny, engraved trophy for my trouble and warned me to keep my mouth shut. But I knew it could happen again. The monster lived on, and the one who had the power to release it was not imprisoned_.'

Harry nearly spilled his ink bottle in his haste to write back.

'_It's happening again now. There have been three attacks and no one seems to know who's behind them. Who was it last time?_'

'_I can show you, if you like,' _came Riddle's reply. '_You don't have to take my word for it. I can take you inside my memory of the night when I caught him._'

Harry hesitated, his quill suspended over the diary. What did Riddle mean? How could he be taken inside somebody else's memory? He glanced nervously at the door to the dormitory, which was growing dark in the fading light of the lamps. When he looked back at the diary, he saw fresh words forming.

'_Let me show you._'

Harry paused for a fraction of a second and then wrote two letters.

'_Ok_'

The pages of the diary began to blow as though caught in a high wind, stopping halfway through the month of June. Mouth hanging open, Harry saw that the little square for June thirteenth seemed to have turned into a miniscule television screen. His hands trembling slightly, he raised the book to press his eye against the little window, and before he knew what was happening, he was tilting forward; the window was widening, he felt his body leave his bed, and he was pitched headfirst through the opening in the page, into a whirl of color and shadow.

He felt his feet hit solid ground, and stood, shaking, as the blurred shapes around him came suddenly into focus.

He knew immediately where he was. This circular room with the sleeping portraits was Dumbledore's office; but it wasn't Dumbledore who was sitting behind the desk. A wizened, frail looking wizard, bald except for a few wisps of white hair, was reading a letter by candlelight. Harry had never seen this man before.

Harry looked around the office. No Fawkes the phoenix, no whirring silver contraptions. This was Hogwarts as Riddle had known it, meaning that this unknown wizard was Headmaster, not Dumbledore, and he, Harry, was little more than a phantom, completely invisible to the people of fifty years ago.

There was a knock on the office door.

"_Enter,_" said the old wizard in a feeble voice.

A boy of about sixteen entered, taking off his pointed hat. A silver prefect's badge was glinting on his chest. He was much taller than Harry, but he, too, had jet black hair.

"_Ah, Riddle,_" said the Headmaster.

"_You wanted to see me, Professor Dippet?_" said Riddle. He looked nervous.

"_Sit down,_" said Dippet. _"I've_ _just been reading the letter you sent me._"

"_Oh,_" said Riddle. He sat down, gripping his hands together very tightly.

"_My dear boy,_" said Dipper kindly, "_I cannot possibly let you stay at school over the summer. Surely you want to go home for the holidays?_"

"_No,_" said Riddle at once. "_I'd much rather stay at Hogwarts than go back to that… to that…_"

"_You live in a Muggle orphanage during the holidays, I believe?_" said Dippet curiously.

"_Yes, sir,_" said Riddle, reddening slightly.

Dippet clucked his tongue sympathetically.

"_The thing is, Tom…_" He paused and sighed. "_Special arrangements might have been made for you, but in the current circumstances..._"

"_You mean all these attacks, sir?_" said Riddle, and Harry's heart leapt, and he moved closer, scared of missing anything.

"_Precisely,_" said the headmaster. "_My dear boy, you must see how foolish it would be of me to allow you to remain at the castle when term ends. Particularly in light of the recent tragedy ... the death of that poor little girl... You will be safer by far at your orphanage. As a matter of fact, the Ministry of Magic talking about closing the school as we speak. We are no nearer locating the, err… source of all this unpleasantness..._"

Riddle's eyes had widened.

"_Sir, if the person was caught… if it all stopped…_"

"_What do you mean?_" said Dippet with a squeak in his voice, sitting up in his chair. "_Riddle, do you mean you know something about these attacks?_"

"_No, sir,_" said Riddle quickly.

But Harry was sure it was the same sort of 'no' that he himself had given Dumbledore.

Dippet sank back, looking faintly disappointed.

"_You may go, Tom..._"

Riddle slid off his chair and slouched out of the room. Harry followed him.

Down the moving spiral staircase they went, emerging next to the gargoyle in the darkening corridor. Riddle stopped, and so did Harry, watching him. Harry could tell that Riddle was doing some serious thinking. He was biting his lip, his forehead furrowed.

Then, as though he had suddenly reached a decision, he hurried off, Harry gliding noiselessly behind him. They didn't see another person until they reached the entrance hall, when a tall wizard with long, sweeping auburn hair and a matching beard called to Riddle from the marble staircase.

"_What are you doing, wandering around this late, Tom?_"

Harry gaped at the wizard. He was none other than Dumbledore, fifty years younger than the one he knew.

"_I had to see the headmaster, sir,_" said Riddle.

"_Well, hurry off to bed,_" said Dumbledore, giving Riddle exactly the kind of penetrating stare Harry knew so well. "_Best not to roam the corridors these days, not since..._"

He sighed heavily, bade Riddle good night, and strode off. Riddle watched him walk out of sight and then, moving quickly, headed straight down the stone steps to the dungeons, with Harry in hot pursuit.

But to Harry's disappointment, Riddle didn't lead him into a hidden passageway or a secret tunnel, but to the very dungeon in which Harry had Potions with Snape. Riddle pushed the door almost closed and started to watch the outer passage when Harry saw movement in the room they were in. Riddle seemed to be aware of it, but didn't react until there was a dark shape directly behind him. Spinning quickly, Riddle grabbed the shape and lit his wand at the same time. Harry gasped in astonishment as Riddle pinned a boy against the wall of the dungeon, a boy that looked exactly like a sixteen-year-old _Faykan_. But surely it wasn't Faykan, Harry thought, it must have been his grandfather at least…

"_Hello Tom,_" the older version of his friend said with an eerily similar grin.

"_Undol…_" Riddle replied, not withdrawing his hand from the other boy's throat.

"_What's wrong Tom, no whispered words for me, like you do with all you other_ '_friends_'_._"

Harry studied the boy, looking for differences with his friend. He couldn't find anything except for the age difference. The older Undol had slightly longer hair, but the same piercing blue eyes, and the only other glaring difference from his friend were the Slytherin robes he was wearing. It made some sense that Faykan's ancestors were in Slytherin, as the sorting hat had tried to place his friend in the house as well. Riddle ignored the comment the shorter boy had made and stepped closer to him, lowering his voice to a deadly whisper.

"_You shouldn't be out this late Undol, the monster has killed a Mudblood and it's still on the loose._"

The older Undol didn't seem phased by the mention of Slytherin's monster, "_I'll take my chances Tom. The better question is why perfect Prefect Tommie is out chasing after wayward Slytherins in the dead of night…_" he smiled again and started playing with the sleeve of Riddle's robes.

Riddle tightened his grip on Faykan's ancestor and glared at him, "_I'm not here chasing after you, if that's what you think._" He let go of the other boy with a shove and directed him to the door. "_Get back to the common room or I will inform a teacher of your little nighttime stroll._"

Undol just grinned back at Tom, "_I'll go Tom, but don't think I haven't a clue what you're up to; Dumbledore isn't the only one that sees through your façade._" Riddle pushed Undol out the door and with a glare closed the door back to a crack. The other boy merely laughed to himself and walked away, sending a pointed look and a wink back to where Riddle and Harry were hidden, leaving them back to the silence of waiting.

It felt to Harry that they were there for at least an hour. All he could see was the figure of Riddle at the door, staring through the crack, waiting like a statue. And just when Harry had stopped feeling expectant and tense and started wishing he could return to the present, he heard something move beyond the door.

Someone was creeping along the passage. He heard whoever it was pass the dungeon where he and Riddle were hidden. Riddle, quiet as a shadow, edged through the door and followed, with Harry tiptoeing behind him, forgetting for the moment that he couldn't be heard.

For perhaps five minutes they followed the footsteps, until Riddle stopped suddenly, his head inclined in the direction of new noises. Harry heard a door creak open, and then someone speaking in a hoarse whisper.

"_C'mon... gotta get yeh outta here... C'mon now... in the box..."_

There was something familiar about that voice...

Riddle suddenly jumped around the corner. Harry stepped out behind him. He could see the dark outline of a huge boy who was crouching in front of an open door, a very large box next to it.

"_Evening, Rubeus,_" said Riddle sharply.

The boy slammed the door shut and stood up.

"_What yer doin' down here, Tom?_"

Riddle stepped closer.

"_It's all over,_" he said. "_I'm going to have to turn you in, Rubeus. They're talking about closing Hogwarts if the attacks don't stop._"

"_N' at d'yeh…_"

"_I don't think you meant to kill anyone. But monsters don't make good pets. I suppose you just let it out for exercise and…"_

"_It never killed no one!_" said the large boy, backing against the closed door. From behind him, Harry could hear a funny rustling and clicking.

"_Come on, Rubeus,_" said Riddle, moving yet closer. "_The dead girl's parents will be here tomorrow. The least Hogwarts can do is make sure that the thing that killed their daughter is slaughtered..._"

"_It wasn't him!_" roared the boy, his voice echoing in the dark passage. "_He wouldn'! He never!_"

"_Stand aside,_" said Riddle, drawing out his wand.

His spell lit the corridor with a sudden flaming light. The door behind the large boy flew open with such force it knocked him into the wall opposite. And out of it came something that made Harry let out a long, piercing scream unheard by anyone present.

A vast, low-slung, hairy body and a tangle of black legs; a gleam of many eyes and a pair of razor-sharp pincers, Riddle raised his wand again and cried, "_Arania Exumai_." He was too late. The thing bowled him over as it scuttled away, tearing up the corridor and out of sight. Riddle scrambled to his feet, looking after it; he raised his wand, but the huge boy leapt on him, seized his wand, and threw him back down, yelling, "_NO!_"

The scene whirled, the darkness became complete; Harry felt himself falling and, with a crash, he landed spread eagled on his four-poster in the Gryffindor dormitory, Riddle's diary lying open on his stomach.

The door to the dormitory opened and Ron and Faykan entered.

"There you are," Ron said.

Harry sat up. He was sweating and shaking.

"What's up?" said Faykan, looking at him with concern.

"It was Hagrid. Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago."

_[1]Ishkhaqwi ai durugnul : I spit upon your grave_

**_Please Review!_**


	9. Chapter 8

**Thank you to the people who reviewed Chapter Seven. And Thank you to Crystalpurity, who beta-ed this chapter. Please give me your feedback about it! Reviews make me so happy to see, even if they are just constructive critism. So don't hesitate to tell me your thoughts!**

**Chapter Eight**

**The Heir of Slytherin?**

It was common knowledge that Hagrid had an unfortunate liking for large and monstrous creatures. But just as common was the knowledge that Hagrid would never wish to intentionally kill anyone.

Harry half-wished he hadn't found out how to work Riddle's diary. Again and again Ron, Faykan and Hermione made him recount what he'd seen, until he was heartily sick of telling them and of the long, circular conversations that followed. Faykan had been surprised at first when Harry told him about Riddle's encounter with his grandfather, but said little about it.

"Riddle might have got the wrong person," said Hermione. "Maybe it was some other monster that was attacking people..."

"He defiantly got the wrong person," Faykan corrected her, not looking up from his book.

"How many monsters d'you think this place can hold?" Ron asked dully.

"We always knew Hagrid had been expelled," said Harry miserably.

"And the attacks must've stopped after Hagrid was kicked out. Otherwise, Riddle wouldn't have gotten his award."

Ron tried a different tack.

"Riddle does sound like Percy, who asked him to squeal on Hagrid, anyway?"

"But the monster had killed someone, Ron," said Hermione.

"And Riddle was going to go back to some Muggle orphanage if they closed Hogwarts," said Faykan, continuing to read.

"I don't blame him for wanting to stay here..." Harry said softly. Faykan was the only one to hear, and he gave Harry a knowing smile.

In the end, they decided that they wouldn't say anything to Hagrid unless there was another attack, and as more and more days went by with no whispers from the disembodied voice, they became hopeful that they would never need to bring up the subject with the gamekeeper. It was now nearly four months since Justin and Nearly Headless Nick had been Petrified, and nearly everybody seemed to think that the attacker, whoever it was, had retired for good. Ernie Macmillan asked Harry quite politely to pass a bucket of leaping toadstools in Herbology one day, creating a sort of uneasy truce between the two, and in March several of the Mandrakes threw a loud and raucous party in greenhouse three. This made Professor Sprout very happy, as it meant they were close to maturity.

The second years were given something new to think about during their Easter holidays. The time had come to choose their subjects for the third year, a matter that Hermione, at least, took very seriously.

"It could affect our whole future," she told Harry and Ron as they pored over lists of new subjects, marking them with checks. Faykan just snorted at her.

Ron sighed gloomily. "We have to keep all our old subjects too, or I'd've ditched Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"But that's very important!" said Hermione, shocked.

"Not the way Lockhart teaches it," said Ron. "I haven't learned anything from him except not to set pixies loose."

Neville Longbottom had been sent letters from all the witches and wizards in his family, all giving him different advice on what to choose. Confused and worried, he sat reading the subject lists with his tongue poking out, asking people whether they thought Arithmancy sounded more difficult than the study of Ancient Runes. Dean Thomas, who, like Harry, had grown up with Muggles, ended up closing his eyes and jabbing his wand at the list, then picking the subjects it landed on. Hermione took nobody's advice and signed up for everything.

Harry smiled grimly to himself at the thought of what Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia would say if he tried to discuss his career in wizardry with them. Not that he didn't get any guidance in the subject, as Percy Weasley was more than eager to share his experience.

"Depends where you want to go, Harry," he said. "It's never too early to think about the future, so I'd recommend Divination. People say Muggle Studies is a soft option, but I personally think wizards should have a thorough understanding of the nonmagical community, particularly if they're thinking of working in close contact with them; look at my father, he has to deal with Muggle business all the time. My brother Charlie was always more of an outdoor type, so he went for Care of Magical Creatures. Play to your strengths, Harry."

But the only thing Harry felt he was really good at was Quidditch. In the end, he chose the same new subjects as Ron, feeling that if he was lousy at them, at least he'd have someone friendly to help him. Faykan rolled his eyes at the choices and picked the same as Harry and Ron, saying that they would be boring if he was in any of them without his two best friends.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Gryffindor's next Quidditch match would be against Hufflepuff. Wood was insisting on team practices every night after dinner, so that Harry barely had time for anything but Quidditch and homework. However, the training sessions were getting better—or at least drier—and the evening before Saturday's match he went up to his dormitory to drop off his broomstick feeling that Gryffindor's chances for the Quidditch cup had never been better.

But his cheerful mood didn't last long. At the top of the stairs to the dormitory, he met a frantic-looking Neville.

"Harry, I don't know who did it, I just found…"

Watching Harry fearfully, Neville pushed open the door. The contents of Harry's trunk had been thrown everywhere. His cloak lay ripped on the floor. The bedclothes had been pulled off his four-poster and the drawer had been pulled out of his bedside cabinet, the contents strewn over the mattress.

Harry walked over to the bed, open-mouthed, treading on a few loose pages of '_Travels with Trolls_'. As he and Neville pulled the blankets back onto his bed, Ron, Faykan, Dean, and Seamus came in. Dean swore loudly.

"What happened, Harry?"

"No idea," said Harry. But Ron was examining Harry's robes. All the pockets were hanging out.

"Someone's been looking for something," said Ron. "Is there anything missing?"

Harry started to pick up all his things and throw them into his trunk, while Faykan repaired everything that had been damaged. It was only as Harry threw the last of the Lockhart books back into it that he realized what wasn't there.

"Riddle's diary's gone," he said in an undertone to Ron and Faykan.

"What?"

Harry jerked his head toward the dormitory door and his best friends followed him out. They hurried down to the half-empty Gryffindor common room and joined Hermione, who was sitting alone, reading a book called '_Ancient Runes Made Easy_'.

Hermione looked aghast at the news.

"But, only a Gryffindor could have stolen… nobody else knows our password…"

"Exactly," said Harry grimly.

They woke the next day to brilliant sunshine and a light, refreshing breeze.

"Perfect Quidditch conditions!" said Wood enthusiastically at the Gryffindor table, loading the team's plates with scrambled eggs.

"Harry, buck up there, you need a decent breakfast."

Harry had been staring down the packed Gryffindor table, wondering if the new owner of Riddle's diary was sitting right in front of his eyes. Faykan was just glad the book was gone. Hermione had been urging him to report the robbery, but Harry didn't like the idea. He'd have to tell a teacher all about the diary, and exactly how many people knew why Hagrid had been expelled fifty years ago? He didn't want to be the one who brought it all up again.

As the four Gryffindors left the Great Hall so Harry could go and collect his Quidditch things, another very serious worry was added to his growing list. He had just set foot on the marble staircase when he heard it yet again.

"_Kill this time... let me rip... tear..._"

He shouted aloud and Ron, Faykan and Hermione all jumped away from him in alarm.

"The voice!" said Harry, looking over his shoulder. "I just heard it again… didn't you?"

Ron shook his head, wide-eyed. Hermione, however, clapped a hand to her forehead.

"Harry… I think I've just understood something! I've got to go to the library!"

And she sprinted away, up the stairs, ignoring Faykan's call of warning, "Hermione! Don't! It's not safe!"

"What does she understand?" said Harry distractedly; still looking around, trying to figure out where the voice had come from.

"Loads more than I do," said Ron, shaking his head.

"But why's she got to go to the library?"

"Because that's what Hermione does," said Faykan, looking back the way she had run, his face contorted with worry. "When in doubt, go to the library."

Harry stood, irresolute, trying to catch the voice again, but people were now emerging from the Great Hall behind him, talking loudly, exiting through the front doors on their way to the Quidditch pitch.

"You'd better get moving," said Ron. "It's nearly eleven… the match…"

Harry raced up to Gryffindor Tower, collected his Nimbus Two Thousand, and joined the large crowd swarming across the grounds, but his mind was still in the castle along with the bodiless voice, and as he pulled on his scarlet robes in the locker room, his only comfort was that everyone was now outside to watch the game. The teams walked onto the field to tumultuous applause. Oliver Wood took off for a warm up flight around the goal posts; Madam Hooch released the balls. The Hufflepuffs, who played in canary yellow, were standing in a huddle, having a last minute discussion of tactics.

Harry was just mounting his broom when Professor McGonagall came half marching, half running across the pitch, carrying an enormous purple megaphone.

Harry's heart dropped like a stone.

"This match has been cancelled," Professor McGonagall called through the megaphone, addressing the packed stadium. There were boos and shouts. Oliver Wood, looking devastated, landed and ran toward Professor McGonagall without getting off his broomstick.

"But, Professor!" he shouted. "We've got to play… the cup, Gryffindor…"

Professor McGonagall ignored him and continued to shout through her megaphone:

"All students are to make their way back to the House common rooms, where their Heads of Houses will give them further information. As quickly as you can, please!"

Then she lowered the megaphone and beckoned Harry over to her.

"Potter, I think you'd better come with me..."

Wondering how she could possibly suspect him this time, Harry saw Ron and Faykan detach themselves from the complaining crowd; they came running up to them as they set off toward the castle. To Harry's surprise, Professor McGonagall didn't object.

"Yes, perhaps you'd better come too boys..."

Some of the students swarming around them were grumbling about the match being canceled; others looked worried. The three boys followed Professor McGonagall back into the school and up the marble staircase. But they weren't taken to anybody's office this time.

"This will be a bit of a shock," said Professor McGonagall in a surprisingly gentle voice as they approached the infirmary. "There has been another attack... another double attack."

Harry's insides did a horrible somersault. Professor McGonagall pushed the door open and he, Faykan and Ron entered.

Madam Pomfrey was bending over a fifth year girl with long, curly hair. And on the bed next to her was…

"Hermione!" Ron groaned.

"No…" Faykan said in a whisper, kneeling by her motionless form.

Hermione lay utterly still, her eyes open and glassy.

"They were found near the library," said Professor McGonagall. "I don't suppose either of you can explain this? It was on the floor next to them...

She was holding up a small, circular mirror. Faykan looked at it, tears in his eyes, and then he turned back to Hermione and rested his head on her arm, whispering "I warned her, I warned her not to go…"

Harry and Ron shook their heads as Professor McGonagall turned to them with the mirror. "I will escort you three back to Gryffindor Tower," said Professor McGonagall heavily. "I need to address the students in any case."

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

The Gryffindors packed inside the common room listened to Professor McGonagall in silence. She had just read from a scroll saying that all students would be supervised at all times, between classes and in the evenings, and that Quidditch was completely suspended as well as all other evening activities. She rolled up the parchment and said in a somewhat choked voice, "I need hardly add that I have rarely been so distressed. It is likely that the school will be closed unless the culprit behind these attacks is caught. I would urge anyone who thinks they might know anything about them to come forward."

She climbed somewhat awkwardly out of the portrait hole, and the Gryffindors began talking immediately. But Harry was only half listening. He didn't seem to be able to get rid of the picture of Hermione, lying on the hospital bed as though carved out of stone. And if the culprit wasn't caught soon, he was looking at a lifetime back with the Dursleys. Tom Riddle had turned Hagrid in because he was faced with the prospect of a Muggle orphanage if the school closed. Harry now knew exactly how he had felt.

"What're we going to do?" said Ron quietly in Harry's ear. "D'you think they suspect Hagrid?"

"We've got to go and talk to him," said Harry, making up his mind. "I can't believe it's him this time, but if he set the monster loose last time he'll know how to get inside the Chamber of Secrets, and that's a start."

"But McGonagall said we've got to stay in our tower unless we're in class…"

"I think," said Faykan, quietly, "it's time to get your dad's old cloak out again."

Harry admitted that Faykan was right. The cloak was their only chance of sneaking out of the school to visit Hagrid without anyone knowing about it. They went to bed at the usual time, waited until Neville, Dean, and Seamus had stopped discussing the Chamber of Secrets and finally fallen asleep, then got up, dressed again, and threw the cloak over themselves. Faykan didn't trust using his animagus form this time, and the three of the crowded under the cloak.

The journey through the dark and deserted castle corridors wasn't enjoyable. Harry, who had wandered the castle at night several times before, had never seen it so crowded after sunset. Teachers, prefects, and ghosts were marching the corridors in pairs, staring around for any unusual activity. Their Invisibility Cloak didn't stop them making any noise, and there was a particularly tense moment when Ron stubbed his toe only yards from the spot where Snape stood standing guard. Thankfully, Snape sneezed at almost exactly the moment Ron swore. It was with relief that they reached the oak front doors and eased them open. The night was clear and the stars shone brightly over their heads. They hurried toward the lit windows of Hagrid's house and only pulled off the cloak when they were right outside his front door.

The door flung open wildly seconds after they had knocked. They found themselves face-to-face with Hagrid aiming a crossbow at them. Fang the boarhound barked loudly behind him.

"Oh," he said, lowering the weapon and staring at them. "What're you three doin' here?"

"What's that for?" said Harry, pointing at the crossbow as they stepped inside.

"Nothin'… nothin'…" Hagrid muttered. "I've bin expectin'—doesn' matter, Sit down… I'll make tea…"

He hardly seemed to know what he was doing. He nearly extinguished the fire, spilling water from the kettle on it, and then smashed the teapot with a nervous jerk of his massive hand. Faykan repaired it with a wave of his hand.

"Are you okay, Hagrid?" said Harry. "Did you hear about Hermione?"

"Oh, I heard, all righ'," said Hagrid, a slight break in his voice. He kept glancing nervously at the windows. He poured them all large mugs of boiling water—teabags had been forgotten—and was just putting a slab of fruitcake on a plate when there was a loud knock on the door.

Hagrid dropped the fruitcake. Harry and Ron exchanged panic-stricken looks, then threw the Invisibility Cloak back over themselves and retreated into a corner. Faykan shifted into his Animagus form and settled into Hagrid's large chair. Hagrid checked that they were hidden, blinked once at confusion at Faykan the fox, seized his crossbow, and flung open his door once more.

"Good evening, Hagrid."

It was Dumbledore. He entered, looking deadly serious, and was followed by a second, very odd-looking man. Faykan's ears perked as the man entered.

The stranger had rumpled gray hair and an anxious expression, and was wearing a strange mixture of clothes: a pinstriped suit, a scarlet tie, a long black cloak, and pointed purple boots. Under his arm he carried a lime green bowler hat.

"That's Dad's boss!" Ron breathed. "Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic!"

Harry elbowed Ron hard to make him shut up.

Hagrid had gone pale and sweaty. He dropped into his chair, almost sitting on Faykan, who jumped to the table to escape, and looked from Dumbledore to Cornelius Fudge.

"Bad business, Hagrid," said Fudge in rather clipped tones. "Very bad business. Had to come. Four attacks on Muggleborns. Things've gone far enough. The Ministry's got to act." Faykan growled lowly at the minister, who only glanced slightly at the fox before turning back to Hagrid.

"I never," said Hagrid, looking imploringly at Dumbledore. "You know I never, Professor Dumbledore, sir…"

"I want it understood, Cornelius, that Hagrid has my full confidence," said Dumbledore, frowning at Fudge.

"Look, Albus," said Fudge, uncomfortably. "Hagrid's record's against him. The Ministry's got to do something, the school governors have been in touch…"

"Yet again, Cornelius, I tell you that taking Hagrid away will not help in the slightest," said Dumbledore. His blue eyes were full of a fire Harry only seen once before, in Faykan.

"Look at it from my point of view," said Fudge, fidgeting nervously with his bowler. "I'm under a lot of pressure. Got to be seen to be doing something. If it turns out it wasn't Hagrid, he'll be back and no more said. But I've got to take him. Got to. Wouldn't be doing my duty…" Faykan snarled louder at Fudge, baring his teeth. It drew the attention of everyone in the room, but only Dumbledore's eyes lingered on the black fox for more than a few moments.

"Take me?" said Hagrid, who was now trembling. "Take me where?"

"For a short stretch only," said Fudge, not meeting Hagrid's eyes. "Not a punishment, Hagrid, more a precaution. If someone else is caught, you'll be let out with a full apology…"

"Not Azkaban?" croaked Hagrid.

Before Fudge could answer, there was another loud rap on the door.

Dumbledore answered it. It was Harry's turn for an elbow in the ribs; he'd let out a very audible gasp.

Mr. Lucius Malfoy strode into Hagrid's hut, swathed in a long black traveling cloak, smiling a cold and satisfied smile. Fang started to growl and Faykan let out a high, sharp bark-like noise.

"Already here, Fudge," he said approvingly. "Good, good..."

"What're you doin' here?" said Hagrid furiously. "Get outta my house!"

"My dear man, please believe me, I have no pleasure at all in being inside your… you call this a house?" said Lucius Malfoy, sneering as he looked around the small cabin. "I simply called at the school and was told that the headmaster was here."

"And what exactly did you want with me, Lucius?" said Dumbledore. He spoke politely, but the fire was still blazing in his blue eyes.

"Dreadful thing, Dumbledore," said Malfoy lazily, taking out a long roll of parchment, "but the governors feel it's time for you to step aside. This is an Order of Suspension; you'll find all twelve signatures on it. I'm afraid we feel you're losing your touch. How many attacks have there been now? Two more this afternoon, wasn't it? At this rate, there'll be no Muggleborns left at Hogwarts, and we all know what an _awful_ loss that would be to the school."

Both Fudge and Hagrid started to argue that Dumbledore needed to stay at Hogwarts, but Mr. Malfoy wouldn't be swayed. Dumbledore finally had to calm Hagrid, "If the governors want my removal, Lucius, I shall of course step aside," he said.

And with that, Mr. Malfoy turned, and Dumbledore left after looking directly where Harry and Ron were hidden, as if he could see them. Fudge looked to Hagrid, waiting for him to leave next. Hagrid patted Faykan on the head once absently, and said carefully, "If anyone wanted ter find out some _stuff_, all they'd have to do would be ter _follow the_ _spiders_. That'd lead 'em right! That's all I'm sayin'." Hagrid left with Fudge on his heels. When the door closed Harry pulled the invisibility cloak off himself and Ron as Faykan changed back into his human form.

"We're in trouble now," Ron said hoarsely. "Without Dumbledore, they might as well close the school now. There'll be an attack a day with him gone."

"I'm going to have a nice long chat with Draco about his father," Harry said, frowning at the closed front door.

**_Review Please!_**


	10. Chapter 9

**Thank you to the people who reviewed chapter eight! bright spots of my day to read what people like my creation. Please keep up the reviews, if not increase them. I live on praise like water!**

**Chapter Nine**

**The Spider's Hollow**

Draco took Hermione's attack rather hard. Over the past year he had grown quite close to the four Gryffindors, and her absence was sorely missed. The four boys weren't even allowed to visit her anymore, as Madam Pomfrey had barred anyone not injured from the hospital wing.

"We're taking no more chances," Madam Pomfrey told them severely through a crack in the infirmary door. "No, I'm sorry, there's every chance the attacker might come back to finish these people off..."

Harry, Ron, and Faykan told Draco everything they had overheard at Hagrid's, and both Harry and Ron ranted about Draco's father for a while, which stung, but Draco knew that what they felt was normal and probably true. But still, Dumbledore's cryptic sense of knowing and simply allowing Lucius to force him out of the school was very odd. Hagrid's hint about the spiders was rather easier to understand, but the trouble was, there didn't seem to be a single spider left in the castle to follow.

With Dumbledore gone, fear had spread as never before, so that the sun warming the castle walls outside seemed to stop at the mullioned windows. There was barely a face to be seen in the school that didn't look worried and tense, and any laughter that rang through the corridors sounded shrill and unnatural and was quickly stifled. Draco couldn't be more ashamed of his father for forcing Dumbledore out of the school at a time like this, not that he was in any position to say anything to Lucius. Draco knew full well the consequences of going against his father's wishes. It was the only thing he wished to tell his friends when they accosted him about his father.

One person, however, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere of terror and suspicion. Theodore Nott was strutting around the school as though he had just been appointed Head Boy. Draco didn't realize what he was so pleased about until the Potions lesson about two weeks after Dumbledore and Hagrid had left, when, sitting right behind Nott, Draco, Faykan, Ron and Harry overheard him gloating to Crabbe and Goyle.

"I always thought Mr. Malfoy might be the one who got rid of Dumbledore," he said, not troubling to keep his voice down as he smirked toward Draco. "I told you my father and Mr. Malfoy both think Dumbledore's the worst headmaster the school's ever had. Maybe we'll get a decent headmaster now. Someone who won't want the Chamber of Secrets closed. McGonagall won't last long; she's only filling in..."

Snape swept past Draco and Harry, making no comment about Hermione's empty seat and cauldron.

"Sir," said Nott loudly. "Sir, why don't you apply for the headmaster's job?"

"Now, now, Nott," said Snape, though he couldn't suppress a thin-lipped smile. "Professor Dumbledore has only been suspended by the governors. I daresay he'll be back with us soon enough."

"Yeah, right," said Nott, smirking. "I expect you'd have Mr. Malfoy's vote, sir, if you wanted to apply for the job, I'll tell my father to tell him you're the best teacher here, sir…"

Snape smirked as he swept off around the dungeon, fortunately not spotting Seamus Finnigan, who was pretending to vomit into his cauldron.

"I'm quite surprised the Mudbloods haven't all packed their bags by now," Nott went on. "Bet you five Galleons the next one dies. Pity it wasn't Granger…"

The bell rang at that moment, which was a stroke of luck for the Slytherin; at Nott's last words, Ron had leapt off his stool and in the scramble to collect bags and books, his attempts to reach Nott went unnoticed.

"Let me at him," Ron growled as Harry and Faykan hung onto his arms. "I don't care, I don't need my wand. I'm going to kill him with my bare hands…"

Faykan suddenly clamped a hand over Ron's mouth and said quietly to Draco and Harry, "I've figured it out, the spiders. Remember, I saw them early this year heading into the Forbidden Forest. That has to be where they're all going."

Ron started to squirm behind Faykan's hand, and Draco paled. "The forest? Aren't there supposed to be… werewolves in there?" he asked sheepishly.

"There are good things in there, too. Like the unicorns," Harry commented. Sadly, this did little to ease Draco's mood, nor Ron's, if his face was any indication of it. But before they could talk further, Snape called for the Gryffindors to assemble so he could lead them to their next class, Herbology.

During dinner, Draco was interrupted from talking with Daphne Greengrass when the large form of Roac, Faykan's pet raven, landed next to his plate and dropped a small message to him before alighting into the air again. Glancing at the message quickly, Draco spied his Gryffindor friends watching him from across the room. Giving the three boys a short nod, Draco burned the message, memorizing it as it turned to ashes:

'_We're doing it tonight. Meet at Slytherin common room entrance after midnight.'_

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry went to get the Invisibility Cloak out of his trunk right after dinner with Faykan, and as he pulled it out he noticed the small glass phial that Faykan had given him for Christmas. On a whim he pocketed it, thinking that it could be an extra light source if anything. Before they returned to the common room, Harry saw Faykan clip the silver-white dagger to his belt, hiding it under his cloak. While they waited for midnight, Fred and George challenged Harry, Faykan and Ron to a few games of Exploding Snap, and Ginny sat watching them, very subdued in Hermione's usual chair. The three second years kept losing on purpose, trying to finish the games quickly, but even so, it was well past midnight when Fred, George, and Ginny finally went to bed.

They waited for the sounds of the dormitory doors closing before Harry and Ron threw the cloak around them and followed Faykan the fox down to the Slytherin common room.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Draco waited in the chair closest to the secret door out to the dungeons from the common room. It was well past midnight and all the other Slytherins had gone to bed, but Draco knew that the Gryffindors would show, even if they were late. Finally, after what seemed like hours, Draco heard a rhythmic tapping from the door, and quietly opened it to find Faykan in his vulpine form, waiting for him. Harry and Ron opened the cloak a bit to allow Draco to squeeze in with them, and they made their way back up to the entrance hall and out onto the grounds.

"'Course," said Ron abruptly as they strode across the black grass, "We might get to the forest and find there's nothing to follow. Those spiders might not've been going there at all. I know it may have looked like they were moving in that sort of general direction, but..."

His voice trailed away hopefully.

They reached Hagrid's house, sad and sorry-looking with its blank windows. When Harry pushed the door open, Fang went mad with joy at the sight of them. Worried he might wake everyone at the castle with his deep, booming barks; they hastily fed him treacle fudge from a tin on the mantelpiece, which glued his teeth together.

"C'mon, Fang, we're going for a walk," said Harry, patting his leg, and Fang bounded happily out of the house behind them, dashed to the edge of the forest, and lifted his leg against a large sycamore tree.

Harry took out his wand, murmured, "_Lumos_!" and a tiny light appeared at the end of it, just enough to let them watch the path for signs of spiders. Draco followed suit immediately, while Faykan unsheathed the dagger. It had runes etched into the blade from hilt to point, but Draco didn't see how useful it would be in the forest.

"How's a dagger going to help against things in the forest?" Ron asked bluntly as they moved toward the line of dark trees.

"It's not a dagger Ron," Faykan said smugly. He held the small blade up in both hands and murmured, "_Glamdring goth namba hyanda en' quessir amin poldora yassen lee ra val_" _[1]_

Immediately the dagger glowed faintly blue, and lengthened until the blade was over thirty inches long. Faykan tested its balance with both hands, and smiled approvingly. "Better?" he asked a wide eyed Ron. Harry suddenly pointed toward the grass. Two solitary spiders were hurrying away from the light of two wands and the sword's glow into the shade of the trees.

"Okay," Ron sighed as though resigned to the worst, "I'm ready. Let's go."

So, with Fang scampering around them, sniffing tree roots and leaves, the four boys entered the forest. By the glow of the wands and Faykan's sword, they followed the steady trickle of spiders moving along the path. They walked behind them for about twenty minutes, not speaking, listening hard for noises other than breaking twigs and rustling leaves. Then, when the trees had become thicker than ever, so that the stars overhead were no longer visible, and their lights shone alone in the sea of dark, they saw their spider guides leaving the path.

Draco paused, trying to see where the spiders were going, but everything outside their little spheres of light was pitch-black. He had never been in the forest before. But Hagrid had said to follow the spiders. They walked for what seemed like at least half an hour, their robes snagging on low slung branches and brambles. After a while, they noticed that the ground seemed to be sloping downward, though the trees were as thick as ever. As they went further into the forest, Faykan's sword seemed to glow more brilliantly, as if there was blue fire flying from the blade.

Fang suddenly let loose a great, echoing bark, making them all jump out of their skins.

"What?" said Ron loudly, looking around into the pitch-dark, and gripping Harry's elbow very hard.

"There's something moving over there," Harry breathed. "Listen... sounds like something big...

They listened. Some distance to their right, the something big was snapping branches as it carved a path through the trees.

"Oh, no," said Ron. "Oh, no, oh, no, oh…"

"Shut up," said Faykan frantically. "It'll hear you."

"Hear him?" said Draco in an unnaturally high voice. "It's already heard Fang!"

The darkness seemed to be pressing on Draco's eyeballs as they all stood, terrified, waiting. There was a strange rumbling noise, and then, silence.

"What d'you think it's doing?" said Harry.

"Probably getting ready to pounce," said Ron.

They waited, shivering, hardly daring to move.

"D'you think it's gone?" Draco whispered.

"Dunno…" Ron stopped speaking abruptly. His eyes were fixed on a point some ten feet above the forest floor, right behind Harry. His face was livid with terror.

Harry didn't even have time to turn around. There was a loud clicking noise and suddenly something large and hairy seized him around the middle and lifted him off the ground, so that he was hanging facedown.

Draco didn't have time to speak before he too was lifted off the ground, followed by Ron and Fang. The clicking sound seemed to heighten as something barreled toward Faykan, who stood still with his sword held high.

"Back foul creatures!" Faykan cried in a commanding voice, swinging his sword in a high arc, causing whatever was trying to grab him to falter and retreat from him. "I will walk to your hollow, not be carried like prey in the night." The clicking continued and Draco, Ron, and Harry were carried off deeper into shadows of the forest.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry never knew how long he was in the creature's clutches; he only knew that the darkness suddenly lifted enough for him to see that the leaf strewn ground was now swarming with spiders. Craning his neck sideways, he realized that they had reached the ridge of a vast hollow, a hollow that had been cleared of trees, so that the stars shone brightly onto the worst scene he had ever laid eyes on.

Spiders. Not tiny spiders like those surging over the leaves below. Spiders the size of carthorses, eight-eyed, eight-legged, black, hairy, gigantic. The massive specimen that was carrying Harry made its way down the steep slope toward a misty, domed web in the very center of the hollow, while its fellows closed in all around it, clicking their pincers excitedly at the sight of its load. None of the spiders tried to advance on Faykan, who held his sword high as the blue fire danced off its blade.

Harry fell to the ground on all fours as the spider released him. Ron, Draco and Fang thudded down next to him, while Faykan ran over to help them to their feet. Fang wasn't howling anymore, but cowering silently on the spot. Ron looked exactly like Harry felt. His mouth was stretched wide in a kind of silent scream and his eyes were popping.

Harry suddenly realized that the spider that had dropped him was saying something. It had been hard to tell, because he clicked his pincers with every word he spoke.

"_Aragog!_" it called. "_Aragog!_"

And from the middle of the misty, domed web, a spider the size of a small elephant emerged, very slowly. There was gray in the black of his body and legs, and each of the eyes on his ugly, pincered head was milky white. He was blind.

"_What is it?_" he said, clicking his pincers rapidly.

"_Men,_" clicked the spider who'd had caught Harry.

"_Is it Hagrid?_" said Aragog, moving closer, his eight milky eyes wandering vaguely.

"_Strangers,_" clicked the spider who'd had brought Ron.

"_Kill them,_" clicked Aragog fretfully. "_I was sleeping..._"

"Descendant of Shelob and Ungoliant, you will hear us," Faykan yelled, causing a stir amongst the spiders, "for we are friends of Hagrid…"

_Click, click, click_ went the pincers of the spiders all around the hollow.

Aragog paused.

"_Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before,_" he said slowly.

"Hagrid's in trouble," said Harry, breathing very fast. "That's why we've come."

"_In trouble?_" said the aged spider, and Harry thought he heard concern beneath the clicking pincers. "_But why has he sent you?_"

"They think, up at the school, that Hagrid's been setting a, a… something on students. They've taken him to Azkaban." Draco said nervously.

Aragog clicked his pincers furiously, and all around the hollow the sound was echoed by the crowd of spiders; it was like applause, except applause didn't usually make Harry feel sick with fear.

"_But that was years ago,_" said Aragog fretfully, "_years and years ago. I remember it well. That's why they made him leave the school. They believed that I was the monster that dwells in what they call the Chamber of Secrets. They thought that Hagrid had opened the Chamber and set me free._"

"And you... you didn't come from the Chamber of Secrets?" said Harry, who could feel cold sweat on his forehead.

"_I!_" said Aragog, clicking angrily. "_I was not born in the castle. I come from a distant land. A traveler gave me to Hagrid when I was an egg. Hagrid was only a boy, but he cared for me, hidden in a cupboard in the castle, feeding me on scraps from the table. Hagrid is my good friend, and a good man. When I was discovered, and blamed for the death of a girl, he protected me. I have lived here in the forest ever since, where Hagrid still visits me. He even found me a wife, Mosag, and you see how our family has grown, all through Hagrid's goodness..._"

Harry summoned what remained of his courage.

"So you never… attacked anyone?"

"_Never,_" croaked the old spider. "_It would have been my instinct, but out of respect for Hagrid, I never harmed a human. The body of the girl who was killed was discovered in a bathroom. I never saw any part of the castle but the cupboard in which I grew up. Our kind like the dark and the quiet..._"

"Do you know what did kill that girl?" said Faykan. "Because whatever it is, it's back and attacking people again…"

His words were drowned by a loud outbreak of clicking and the rustling of many long legs shifting angrily; large black shapes shifted all around him.

"_The thing that lives in the castle,_" said Aragog "_is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others. Well do I remember how I pleaded with Hagrid to let me go, when I sensed the beast moving about the school._"

"What is it?" said Harry urgently.

More loud clicking, more rustling; the spiders seemed to be closing in staying out of the light of Faykan's blade. "_We do not speak of it!_" said Aragog fiercely. "_We do not name it! I never even told Hagrid the name of that dread creature, though he asked me, many times._"

Harry didn't want to press the subject, not with the spiders pressing closer on all sides. Aragog seemed to be tired of talking. He was backing slowly into his domed web, but his fellow spiders continued to inch slowly toward the four boys.

"We'll just go, then," Draco called desperately to Aragog, as leaves rustling behind them.

"_Go?_" said Aragog slowly. "_I think not… my sons and daughters do not harm Hagrid, on my command. But I cannot deny them fresh meat, when it wanders so willingly into our midst. Goodbye, friends of Hagrid._"

Harry spun around. Feet away, towering above them was a solid wall of spiders, clicking, their many eyes gleaming in their ugly black heads.

"Wands, now!" Faykan commanded. "Ron, get Fang!" The spiders started to surge toward the boys, and Faykan swung his sword at those who dared to enter the parameter of the blue light. High screams and fierce clicking came whenever Faykan sliced through a leg or pincer. Draco bellowed "_Arania Exumai_!" at a spider that tried to sneak behind Faykan, blasting it back into the mass of its fellows. The group started to edge back, out of the spider's hollow, Faykan and Draco fending off the spiders as best they could. The spiders tried to block their path, but Faykan slashed his sword in a wide low arc, "_Naur en' Isengard!_" _[2]_ Flames burst off the blade, scorching the ground and driving the spiders away, opening a path out of the hollow. Together they burst out running as fast away as their legs could carry them, Faykan taking the rear and pausing often to cut down any spider that caught up to him.

They ran like madmen, the spiders chasing after them, the clicking growing louder as more and more spiders joined the chase.

As they neared the tree line that marked the beginnings of the forest outside the hollow, Harry chanced a glance around. The spiders were circling them, trying to cut off their escape. Harry, in the lead, was about to raise his wand when a thought struck him. He pulled the shining phial, held it aloft and bellowed words that came to his mind, "_Aiya Eärendil Elenion Ancalima_!" _[3]_ The light inside the crystal glass magnified to rival the sun, pouring forth toward the oncoming spiders. They halted, screaming in pain and holding their forelegs up to protect their eyes. The boys kept running, passing through the midst of the now retreating spiders; they could not tolerate the light from Harry's phial.

Finally they burst out of the edge of the forest, and didn't stop until they were all partially barricaded inside Hagrid's hut. Fang dived under a blanket and began trembling. Ron had to pause outside and was violently sick in the pumpkin patch.

"Follow the spiders," said Ron weakly, wiping his mouth on his sleeve as he entered. "I'll never forgive Hagrid. We're lucky to be alive."

"I bet he thought Aragog wouldn't hurt friends of his," said Harry.

"That's exactly Hagrid's problem!" said Ron, thumping the wall of the cabin. "He always thinks monsters aren't as bad as they're made out, and look where it's got him! A cell in Azkaban!" He was shivering uncontrollably now. "What was the point of sending us in there? What have we found out, I'd like to know?"

"That Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets," said Harry, as he watched Faykan wipe the black spider blood from his sword, shrink it and sheath it in his belt, "He was innocent."

Ron gave a loud snort. Evidently, hatching Aragog in a cupboard wasn't his idea of being innocent.

"So, tell me how we managed to escape them so easily?" Draco piped up, looking paler than usual. "I mean, the last thing I remember well was the spiders trying to surround us, then a blinding light…"

"That, dear Draco," Faykan said with a wide smile at Harry, "was Harry's ingenious use of the Phial of Galadriel."

"The what?" Draco and Harry responded simultaneously.

"The Phial of Galadriel, it is a crystal container which holds inside it the light of _Eärendil_, most beloved star of the elves. Dark creatures cannot bear the light of something so pure and good. It was made for the one purpose of protecting the bearer when they are amidst the shadow of evil," Faykan explained with the grin still plastered on his face.

Harry's eyes widened. He looked down at the crystal phial in his hand, whose light had returned to a comfortable glow. 'Most beloved star of the elves?' he thought. Faykan, presuming Harry's unasked question said, "Not house elves, Harry. The _Quendi_, the immortal elder children of _Ilúvatar_, wisest and fairest of all beings. Galadriel was the last great queen of the Noldor in _arda_, the world."

"What happened to them?" Draco asked in an awed voice.

"They left, sailing far across the sea to the lands of _Valinor_. Only a few remained, sacrificing their immortality to become the ancestors of all wizardkind."

"Wow…" Ron said softly. The four boys stared at the elven phial for a few solemn moments before leaving to return to the castle. Harry's mind wandered to what Aragog had told them as they approached the front doors. Something clicked in his mind, and he gasped aloud.

"That girl who died fifty years ago, Aragog said she was found in a bathroom," said Harry. "What if she never left the bathroom? What if she's still there?"

Ron rubbed his eyes sleepily, frowning through the moonlight. And then he understood, too. "You don't think… not Moaning Myrtle?"

Faykan and Draco's eyes widened with realization.

_[1]Glamdring goth namba hyanda en' quessir __amin poldora yassen lee ra val : Glamdring foe hammer, blade of the elves strengthen me with your great power_

_[2]Naur en' Isengard : Fire of Isengard_

_[__3]Aiya Eärendil Elenion Ancalima : Hail Eärendil, brightest of stars_

**_Please Review!_**


	11. Chapter 10

**Many Thanks to the people who reviewed Chapter Nine, loved responding to your speculations and questions, even if it was only to say "Spoilers..." Please don't stop sending me those delicious reviews, the more i get, the more inspired i get to write, and thus the better i weave the plot.**

**Chapter Ten**

**Truth behind the Smile**

Three days before the start of exams, Professor McGonagall made another announcement at breakfast. Severus Snape sat watching the reaction of the students as several yelled out guesses at what the good news could be. Minerva finally settled the students down enough to explain that the Mandrakes were ready at last, and the petrified people, animals, and ghosts would be returned to normalcy the next day.

There was an explosion of cheering. Severus looked over at the Slytherin table and noticed that Theodore Nott hadn't joined in. The lanky boy had been very pleased with all the misfortune that had happened this year, and Severus placed the blame fully upon the boy's Death Eater father. Severus' eyes were drawn to Draco as he stood and made his way to the Gryffindor table, sat among his friends Potter, Weasley and Undol, and started talking with them in subdued voices. They were joined shortly after by the youngest Weasley, and Severus noted how nervous and jittery she appeared to be. Potter, Undol and Draco seemed to become aware of this as well, and Severus cast a small spell that allowed him to overhear their conversation.

"I've got to tell you something," the Weasley girl mumbled.

"What is it?" Potter replied.

The girl looked as though she couldn't find the right words.

"What?" said her brother.

The youngest Weasley opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Harry leaned forward and spoke quietly, but Severus could still hear them perfectly fine.

"Is it something about the Chamber of Secrets? Have you seen something? Someone acting oddly?" Potter said

She drew a deep breath and, but that precise moment, another red haired Weasley appeared, looking tired and worn.

"If you've finished eating, I'll take that seat, Ginny. I'm starving; I've only just come off patrol duty."

The girl jumped up as though her chair had just been electrified, gave her elder brother a fleeting, frightened look, and scampered away. Percy sat down and grabbed a mug from the center of the table.

"Percy!" said the younger Weasley boy angrily. "She was just about to tell us something important!"

Severus cancelled the spell, knowing that it was unlikely that the girl knew anything important. More likely she was just scared and seeking reassurance from her brother and his friends. He did notice that Undol and Draco continued to talk in hushed whispers. They apparently came to a conclusion, because Draco nodded and stood quickly, following the Weasley girl out to the entrance hall.

_~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~_

Harry knew the whole mystery might be solved tomorrow without their help, but he wasn't about to pass up a chance to speak to Myrtle if it turned up, and to his delight it did, midmorning, when they were being led to History of Magic by Gilderoy Lockhart.

Lockhart, who had so often assured them that all danger had passed, only to be proved wrong right away, was now wholeheartedly convinced that it was hardly worth the trouble to see them safely down the corridors. His hair wasn't as sleek as usual; it seemed he had been up most of the night, patrolling the fourth floor.

"Mark my words," he said, ushering them around a corner. "The first words out of those poor Petrified people's mouths will be 'it was Hagrid.' Frankly, I'm astounded Professor McGonagall thinks all these security measures are necessary."

"I agree, sir," said Harry, making Ron drop his books in surprise.

"Thank you, Harry," said Lockhart graciously while they waited for a long line of Hufflepuffs to pass. "I mean, we teachers have quite enough to be getting on with, without walking students to classes and standing guard all night..."

"That's right," said Faykan, catching on. "Why don't you leave us here, sir, we've only got one more corridor to go…"

"You know, Mr. Undol, I think I will," said Lockhart. "I really should go and prepare for my next class..."

With that he hurried off back the way they had come.

"Prepare for his class," Ron sneered after him. "Gone to curl his hair, more like."

They let the rest of the Gryffindors draw ahead of them, then darted down a side passage and hurried off toward Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. But just as they were congratulating each other on their brilliant scheme—

"Potter! Undol! Weasley! What are you doing?"

It was Professor McGonagall, and her mouth was the thinnest of thin lines.

Faykan looked like a deer caught in headlights. Ron started stammering, trying to make an excuse.

"Hermione!" said Harry quickly. Faykan, Ron and Professor McGonagall all looked at him.

"We haven't seen her for ages, Professor," Harry went on hurriedly, stepping on Ron's foot to keep him from saying anything else, "and we thought we'd sneak into the hospital wing, you know, and tell her the Mandrakes are nearly ready and, err, not to worry…"

Professor McGonagall was still staring at him. For a moment, Harry thought she was going to explode, but when she spoke, it was in a strangely croaky voice.

"Of course," she said, and Harry, amazed, saw a tear glistening in her beady eye. "Of course, I realize this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been... I quite understand. Yes, Potter, of course you may visit Miss Granger. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission."

Harry, Faykan and Ron walked away, hardly daring to believe that they'd avoided detention. As they turned the corner, they distinctly heard Professor McGonagall blow her nose.

"That," said Ron fervently, "was the best story you've ever come up with."

They had no choice now but to go to the hospital wing and tell Madam Pomfrey that they had Professor McGonagall's permission to visit Hermione.

Madam Pomfrey let them in, but reluctantly.

"There's just no point talking to a Petrified person," she said, and they had to admit she had a point when they'd taken their seats next to Hermione. It was plain that Hermione didn't have the faintest inkling that she had visitors, and that they might just as well tell her bedside cabinet not to worry for all the good it would do.

"Wonder if she did see the attacker, though?" said Ron, looking sadly at Hermione's rigid face. "Because if he sneaked up on them all, no one'll ever know..."

But Harry wasn't looking at Hermione's face. He was more interested in her right hand. It lay clenched on top of her blankets, and bending closer, he saw that a piece of paper was scrunched inside her fist.

Making sure that Madam Pomfrey was nowhere near, he pointed this out to Faykan and Ron.

"Try and get it out," Ron whispered, shifting his chair so that he blocked Madam Pomfrey's view.

It was no easy task. Hermione's hand was clamped so tightly around the paper that Harry was sure he was going to tear it. While Ron kept watch, he and Faykan tugged and twisted, and at last, after several tense minutes, the paper came free.

It was a page torn from a very old library book. Harry smoothed it out eagerly and both Faykan and Ron leaned close to read it, too.

'_Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it.__'_

And beneath this, a single word had been written, in a hand Harry recognized as Hermione's. _'Pipes.'_

It was as though somebody had just flicked a light on in his brain.

"This is it. This is the answer. The monster in the Chamber's a basilisk; a giant serpent! That why I've been hearing that voice all over the place, and nobody else has heard it. It's because I understand Parseltongue..."

Harry looked up at the beds around him.

"The basilisk kills people by looking at them. But no one's died, because no one looked it straight in the eye. Colin saw it through his camera. The basilisk burned up all the film inside it, but Colin just got Petrified. Justin... Justin must've seen the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again... and Hermione and that Ravenclaw prefect were found with a mirror next to them. Hermione had just realized the monster was a basilisk. I bet you anything she warned the first person she met to look around corners with a mirror first! And that girl pulled out her mirror and…"

Faykan was nodding vigorously, "It makes sense! When I peered into Justin's memories, all I could see were two giant yellow eyes. But they were all blurry; he couldn't see them clearly.

Ron's jaw had dropped.

"And Mrs. Norris?" he whispered eagerly.

Harry thought hard, picturing the scene on the night of Halloween. "The water..." he said slowly. "The flood from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I bet you Mrs. Norris only saw its reflection..."

Harry scanned the page in his hand eagerly. The more he looked at it, the more it made sense.

"But how's the basilisk been getting around the place?" said Ron. "A giant snake... Someone would've seen..."

Harry, however, pointed at the word Hermione had scribbled at the foot of the page.

"Pipes," he said. "Pipes... Ron, it's been using the plumbing. I've been hearing that voice inside the walls..."

Faykan suddenly grabbed Harry's arm.

"The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!" he said excitedly. "What if it's in a bathroom? What if it's in…"

"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom!" they all said at once. They sat there, excitement coursing through them, hardly able to believe it.

"This means," said Harry, "I can't be the only Parselmouth in the school. The Heir of Slytherin's one, too. That's how he's been controlling the basilisk."

"What're we going to do?" said Ron, whose eyes were flashing. "Should we go straight to McGonagall?"

"Let's go to the staff room," said Harry, jumping up. "She'll be there in ten minutes. It's nearly break."

They ran downstairs. Not wanting to be discovered hanging around in another corridor, they went straight into the deserted staff room. It was a large, paneled room full of dark, wooden chairs.

Harry and Ron paced around it, too excited to sit down, while Faykan watched the door for any signs of teachers.

But the bell to signal break never came.

Instead, echoing through the corridors came Professor McGonagall's voice, magically magnified.

"All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please."

"Not another attack? Not now?" Faykan moaned.

"What'll we do?" said Ron, aghast. "Go back to the dormitory?"

"No," said Harry, glancing around. There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to his left, full of the teachers' cloaks. "In here. Let's hear what it's all about. Then we can tell them what we've found out."

They hid themselves inside it, listening to the rumbling of hundreds of people moving overhead, and the staff room door banging open. From between the musty folds of the cloaks, they watched the teachers filtering into the room. Some of them were looking puzzled, others downright scared. Then Professor McGonagall arrived.

"It has happened," she told the silent staff room. "A pair of students has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."

Professor Flitwick let out a squeal. Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth. Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard and said, "How can you be sure?"

"The Heir of Slytherin," said Professor McGonagall, who was very white, "left another message. Right underneath the first one, _`Their skeletons will lie in the Chamber forever.'_"

Professor Flitwick burst into tears.

"Who?" said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. "Which students?"

"Ginny Weasley and Draco Malfoy," said Professor McGonagall.

Harry felt Ron slide silently down onto the wardrobe floor beside him. Faykan had blanched whiter than Harry ever remembered seeing him.

"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow," said Professor McGonagall. "This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said..."

The staffroom door banged open again. For one wild moment, Harry was sure it would be Dumbledore. But it was Lockhart, and he was beaming.

"So sorry, dozed off… what have I missed?"

"Just the man," Snape said, stepping forward, "the very man. A pair of students has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Taken into the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your moment has come at last."

Lockhart's smiled faded and his face paled.

"That's right, Gilderoy," chipped in Professor Sprout. "Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"

"We'll leave it to you, then, Gilderoy," said Professor McGonagall, cutting off his protests. "Tonight will be an excellent time to do it. We'll make sure everyone's out of your way. You'll be able to tackle the monster all by yourself. A free rein at last."

Lockhart gazed desperately around him, but nobody came to the rescue. He didn't look remotely handsome anymore. His lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usually toothy grin, he looked weak chinned and feeble.

"V-very well," he said. "I'll… I'll be in my office, getting… getting ready." And he left the room.

"Right," said Professor McGonagall, whose nostrils were flared, "that's got him out from under our feet. The Heads of Houses should go and inform their students what has happened. Tell them the Hogwarts Express will take them home first thing tomorrow. Will the rest of you please make sure no students have been left outside their dormitories?"

The teachers rose and left, one by one.

It was probably the worst day of Harry's entire life. He, Faykan, Ron, Fred, and George sat together in a corner of the Gryffindor common room, unable to say anything to each other. Percy wasn't there. He had gone to send an owl to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, then shut himself up in his dormitory.

Ron and Faykan were both very subdued. Ron was certain that Ginny had known something important for her to be taken, and Faykan blamed himself for not stopping Draco from going after her to find out what she knew.

"D'you know what?" said Ron after a long silence. "I think we should go and see Lockhart. Tell him what we know. He's going to try and get into the Chamber. We can tell him where we think it is, and tell him it's a basilisk in there."

Neither Harry nor Faykan found any reason to argue. The Gryffindors around them were so miserable, and felt so sorry for the Weasleys, that nobody tried to stop them as they got up, crossed the room, and left through the portrait hole.

Darkness was falling as they walked down to Lockhart's office. There seemed to be a lot of activity going on inside it. They could hear scraping, thumps, and hurried footsteps.

Harry knocked and there was a sudden silence from inside. Then the door opened the tiniest crack and they saw one of Lockhart's eyes peering through it.

"Oh… Mr. Potter, Mr. Undol, Mr. Weasley…" he said, opening the door a bit wider. "I'm rather busy at the moment, if you would be quick…"

"Professor, we've got some information for you," said Harry. "We think it'll help you."

"Err, well… it's not terribly…" The side of Lockhart's face that they could see looked very uncomfortable. "I mean, well all right…"

He opened the door and they entered.

His office had been almost completely stripped. Two large trunks stood open on the floor. Robes, jade green, lilac, and midnight blue, had been hastily folded into one of them; books were jumbled untidily into the other. The photographs that had covered the walls were now crammed into boxes on the desk.

"Are you going somewhere?" said Harry.

"Err, well, yes," said Lockhart, ripping a life size poster of himself from the back of the door as he spoke and starting to roll it up. "Urgent call, unavoidable… got to go…"

"What about my sister?" said Ron jerkily.

"Well, as to that… most unfortunate…" said Lockhart, avoiding their eyes as he wrenched open a drawer and started emptying the contents into a bag. "No one regrets more than I…"

"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!" said Harry. "You can't go now! Not with all the Dark stuff going on here!"

"Well, I must say, when I took the job…" Lockhart muttered, now piling socks on top of his robes. "Nothing in the job description, didn't expect…"

"You mean you're running away?" said Harry disbelievingly. "After all that stuff you did in your books…"

"Books can be misleading," said Lockhart delicately.

"You're a fraud…" Faykan said in a low voice. "You've merely taken credit for what other wizards have done over the years."

"Is there anything you can do?" Ron said in disgust.

"Yes," Lockhart said, slightly ruffled, "I'm rather adept at memory charms, or else those other wizards would have gone blabbing, and I'd've never sold another book."

He banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them.

"Let's see," he said. "I think that's everything. Yes. Only one thing left…"

He pulled out his wand and turned to find Faykan's in his face.

"I don't think so…" Faykan said coldly as Ron relieved Lockhart of his wand and deftly tossed it out the open window.

"What d'you want me to do?" said Lockhart weakly. "I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is. There's nothing I can do."

"You're in luck," said Harry, forcing Lockhart to walk ahead of them at wand point. "We think we know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go."

They marched Lockhart out of his office and down the nearest stairs, along the dark corridor where the messages shone on the wall, to the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

They sent Lockhart in first. Harry was pleased to see that he was shaking.

Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the end toilet.

"Oh, it's you," she said when she saw Faykan, Harry and Ron. "What do you want this time?"

"To ask you how you died," said Harry.

Myrtle's whole aspect changed at once. She looked as though she had never been asked such a flattering question.

"Ooooh, it was dreadful," she said with relish. "It happened right in here. I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny. A different language, I think it must have been. Anyway, what really got me was that it was a boy speaking. So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then…"

Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining. "I died."

"How?" said Faykan.

"No idea," said Myrtle in hushed tones. "I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away..." She looked dreamily at Harry. "And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, she was sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses."

"Where exactly did you see the eyes?" said Harry.

"Somewhere there," said Myrtle, pointing vaguely toward the sink in front of her toilet.

Harry and Faykan hurried over to it, while Ron watched Lockhart. He was standing well back, a look of utter terror on his face.

It looked like an ordinary sink. They examined every inch of it, inside and out, including the pipes below. And then Harry saw it: Scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake.

"That tap's never worked," said Myrtle brightly as he tried to turn it.

"Harry," said Faykan. "Say something in Parseltongue."

"But…" Harry thought hard. The only times he'd ever managed to speak Parseltongue were when he'd been faced with a real snake. He stared hard at the tiny engraving, trying to imagine it was real.

"Open up," he said.

He looked at Faykan, who shook his head.

"English," he said.

Harry looked back at the snake, willing himself to believe it was alive. If he moved his head, the candlelight made it look as though it were moving.

"_Open up_," he said.

Except that the words weren't what he heard; a strange hissing had escaped him, and at once the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. Next second, the sink began to move; the sink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into.

Harry heard Ron gasp behind him and looked up again. He had made up his mind what he was going to do.

"I'm going down there," he said.

He needed to go; now they had found the entrance to the Chamber; especially if there was even the faintest, slimmest, wildest chance that Ginny or Draco might still be alive.

"Me too," both Faykan and Ron said in unison.

There was a pause. They all turned to look at Lockhart.

"Well, you hardly seem to need me," said Lockhart, with a shadow of his old smile. "I'll just…"

He put his hand on the door knob, but Faykan and Ron both pointed their wands at him.

"You can go first," Ron snarled.

White faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening.

"Boys…" he said, his voice feeble. "Boys, what good will it do?"

"Better you than us," Faykan said snidely.

Harry jabbed him in the back with his wand. Lockhart slid his legs into the pipe.

"I really don't think…" he started to say, but Ron gave him a push, and he slid out of sight.

"Oh, fox boy," said Myrtle lazily, and Faykan turned to her. "If you die down there, you and your cute friends are welcome to share my toilet…"

Faykan shivered slightly, and jumped into the pipe without responding. Harry followed, quickly lowering himself slowly into the pipe, then letting go.

It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. He could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as theirs, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downward, and he knew that he was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons. Behind him he could hear Ron, thudding slightly at the curves.

And then, just as he had begun to worry about what would happen when he hit the ground, the pipe leveled out, and he shot out of the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel large enough to stand up straight in. Faykan was getting to his feet a little ways away, while Lockhart stood there covered in slime and white as a ghost. Harry stood aside as Ron came whizzing out of the pipe behind him.

"I told you she was creepy…" Faykan said quietly.

"We must be miles under the school," said Harry, his voice echoing in the black tunnel.

"Under the lake, probably," said Ron, squinting around at the dark, slimy walls.

All four of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead.

"Lumos!" Harry muttered to his wand and it lit again. "C'mon," he said to Faykan, Ron and Lockhart, and off they went, their footsteps slapping loudly on the wet floor.

The tunnel was so dark that they could only see a little distance ahead. Their shadows on the wet walls looked monstrous in the wand light.

"Remember," Harry said quietly as they walked cautiously forward, "any sign of movement, close your eyes right away.

But the tunnel was quiet as a grave, and the first unexpected sound they heard was a loud crunch as Faykan stepped on what turned out to be a rat's skull. Harry lowered his wand to look at the floor and saw that it was littered with small animal bones. Trying very hard not to imagine what Ginny or Draco might look like if they found them, Harry led the way forward, around a dark bend in the tunnel.

"Harry, there's something up there…" said Ron hoarsely, grabbing Harry's shoulder.

They froze, watching. Harry could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.

"Maybe it's asleep," he breathed, glancing back at the other two. Lockhart's hands were pressed over his eyes. Harry turned back to look at the thing, his heart beating so fast it hurt.

Very slowly, his eyes as narrow as he could make them and still see, Harry edged forward, his wand held high. Faykan followed right behind him.

The light slid over a gigantic snake skin, of a vivid, poisonous green, lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. The creature that had shed it must have been twenty feet long at least.

"Blimey," said Ron weakly.

There was a sudden movement behind them. Gilderoy Lockhart's knees had given way.

"Get up," said Ron sharply, pointing his wand at Lockhart.

Lockhart got to his feet, and then he dived at Ron, knocking him to the ground.

Harry jumped forward, but too late, Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Ron's wand in his hand and a gleaming smile back on his face.

"The adventure ends here, boys!" he said. "I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school; tell them I was too late to save the students, and that you three tragically lost your minds at the sight of their mangled bodies. So… you first Mr. Potter, say goodbye to your memories!"

He raised Ron's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled, "_Obliviate_!" at the same moment Faykan threw himself in front of Harry, conjuring a shining blue shield around them. Lockhart's spell was reflected back at him, directly into Ron's wand.

The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb. Harry and Faykan flung their arms over their heads and ran, slipping over the coils of snake skin, out of the way of great chunks of tunnel ceiling that was thundering to the floor. Next moment, he and Faykan were standing alone, gazing at a solid wall of broken rock.

"Ron!" he shouted. "Are you okay? Ron!"

"I'm here!" came Ron's muffled voice from behind the rock fall. "I'm okay, Lockharts gone though, I think he's been buried under the rocks…"

Harry looked up at the tunnel ceiling. Huge cracks had appeared in it. He had never tried to break apart anything as large as these rocks by magic, and now didn't seem a good moment to try; what if the whole tunnel caved in? They were wasting time. Ginny and Draco had already been in the Chamber of Secrets for hours... Harry knew there was only one thing to do.

"Wait there," he called to Ron. "I'll go on. If I'm not back in an hour…"

"Like hell you're going alone," Faykan said hotly.

"I'll try and shift some of this rock," said Ron, who seemed to be trying to keep his voice steady. "So you guys can… can get back through. And, Harry…"

"See you in a bit," said Harry, trying to inject some confidence into his shaking voice.

And together he and Faykan set off past the giant snake skin.

Soon the distant noise of Ron straining to shift the rocks was gone. The tunnel turned and turned again. Every nerve in Harry's body was tingling unpleasantly. He wanted the tunnel to end, yet dreaded what he'd find when it did. Faykan had drawn out his sword from within his robes, as he carried it everywhere since the adventure in the forest. The blue glow of the blade shined around them in the darkened cave, tossing shadows everywhere. And then, at last, as they crept around yet another bend, Harry saw a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.

The boys approached the snakes, and Harry's throat became very dry. There was no need to pretend these stone snakes were real; their eyes looked strangely alive.

Harry could guess what he had to do. He cleared his throat, and the emerald eyes seemed to flicker.

"_Open_, "said Harry, in a low, faint hiss.

The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Harry, shaking from head to foot, walked inside, Faykan right behind him, sword light illuminating the way ahead.

_**Please Review**_


	12. Chapter 11

**Thanks to those who reviewed chapter Ten, the cliffhanger was rather cruel I admit, but the chapter was running long and it didn't want to wrap the story up in one massive chapter. Please continue to show your support by reviewing!**

**Chapter Eleven**

**Slytherin Speaks**

Harry and Faykan found themselves at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place.

His heart beating very fast, Harry stood listening to the chill silence. Could the basilisk be lurking in a shadowy corner, behind a pillar? And where were Draco and Ginny? Faykan put a hand on his shoulder, reassuring him, and together they made their way forward between the serpentine columns, footsteps echoing loudly. As they drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue as high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall.

Harry had to crane his neck to look up into the giant face above: It was ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous gray feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor. And between the feet, facedown, lay two small, black robed figures, one with flaming red hair, and other silvery blond.

"No…" Faykan muttered. Both he and Harry sprinted to the fallen forms, and Harry kneeled next to Ginny.

"Don't be dead… please don't be dead…" Harry whispered as he rolled her over. Her face was white as marble, and as cold, yet her eyes were closed, so she wasn't Petrified.

"Draco, please wake up," Faykan said desperately, shaking Draco fervently. His head lolled hopelessly from side to side and Faykan pulled his hand away, covered in blood.

"They won't wake," said a soft voice behind Harry.

Both boys jumped and spun around, Faykan brandishing his sword.

A tall, black haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though Harry were looking at him through a misted window. But there was no mistaking him.

"Tom… Tom Riddle?"

Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off Harry's face.

"What d'you mean, they won't wake?" Harry said desperately. "They're not, not…?"

"They're still alive," Riddle replied, "but only just…"

Harry stared at him. Tom Riddle had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet here he stood, a weird, misty light shining about him, not a day older than sixteen.

"Are you a ghost?" Harry said uncertainly.

"A memory," said Riddle quietly. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years.

He pointed toward the floor near the statue's giant toes. Lying open there was the little black diary Harry had found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. For a second, Harry wondered how it had got there; but there were more pressing matters to deal with.

"Harry," Faykan said softly, "We need to get the out of here… the basilisk…"

Harry nodded, hoisted Ginny half off the floor, and went to pick his wand off the floor…

But his wand was gone.

"Where…"

Harry looked up to find Riddle twirling Harry's wand between his long fingers.

Faykan narrowed his eyes at Riddle, "Give Harry back his wand, Tom."

A smile curled the corners of Riddle's mouth. He glanced at Faykan for a moment, and then turned to continue staring at Harry.

"Listen," said Harry urgently, his knees sagging with Ginny's dead weight. "We've got to go! If the basilisk comes…"

"It won't come until it's called…" Riddle said calmly.

Harry lowered Ginny back onto the floor, unable to hold her up any longer.

"What d'you mean?" he said. "Look, give me my wand, I might need it…"

Riddle's smile broadened.

"You won't be needing it," he said.

"How did they get like this, Tom?" Faykan asked slowly. Harry saw him move to the side slightly, and his left hand reached for his wand inside his robes.

"Well, that's an interesting question," said Riddle pleasantly, "and quite a long story. I suppose the real reason these two students are like this is because Ginny Weasley opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger."

"What are you talking about?" said Harry.

"The diary," said Riddle. "My diary, little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes; how her brothers tease her, how she had to come to school with secondhand robes and books, how…" Riddle's eyes glinted "how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter or his friends would ever like her…"

"You've been manipulating her from the beginning, haven't you Tom?" Faykan said coldly.

"You know, you remind me of someone I knew fifty years ago… he was particularly nosy about my business then as well," Tom eyed Faykan up and down for a moment. "You even resemble him remarkably."

"Your grandfather…" Harry breathed, his eyes meeting Faykan's momentarily before they returned to watching Riddle.

Riddle laughed; a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him and continued with his story. It made the hairs stand up on the back of Harry's neck.

"If I say it myself, I've always been able to charm the people I needed. So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted... I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets. I grew powerful, far more powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her..."

Tom continued to recount how he had made Ginny open the Chamber of Secrets, and set the monster upon all the students, Nick and Mrs. Norris. Riddle mentioned that he grew very curious about Harry when he had the diary in his possession. Harry and Faykan just stared at him. Tom seemed to think he was the most ingenious person alive to be able to trick everyone.

"From everything Ginny had told me about you, I knew you would go to any lengths to solve the mystery, particularly if one of your best friends was attacked. And Ginny had told me the whole school was buzzing because you could speak Parseltongue…"

"So I made Ginny write her own farewell on the wall and come down here to wait. She struggled and cried and became very boring. Then the boy came in behind her, and I made her take him too. She didn't want to of course; she was rather smitten with him, you see. But there isn't much life left in her... She put too much into the diary, into me. Enough to let me leave its pages at last... I have been waiting for you to appear since we arrived here. I knew you'd come. I have many questions for you, Harry Potter."

"Like what?" Harry spat, fists still clenched.

"Well," said Riddle, smiling pleasantly, "how is it that you, a skinny boy with no extraordinary magical talent, managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?"

There was an odd red gleam in his hungry eyes now.

"Why do you care how I escaped?" said Harry slowly. "Voldemort was after your time..."

Faykan's voice sounded next to Harry. He turned to see the coldness in his friend's eyes as he gazed at Tom Riddle, "Because he is Voldemort, Harry…"

Riddle began to laugh again. He laughed so hard that the dark chamber rang with it, as though ten Riddles were laughing at once.

"Indeed I am, boy…" he said with a sidelong look at Faykan. He turned once again, back to Harry and grinned malevolently, "To business then, Harry. Twice; in your past, in my future, we have met. And twice I failed to kill you. How did you survive? Tell me everything. The longer you talk," he added softly, "the longer you and your little friend stay alive."

Harry was thinking fast, weighing his chances. Riddle had his wand and the Basilisk. Harry and Faykan had one wand and a sword between them. It looked bad, all right... but the longer Riddle stood there, the more life was dwindling out of Ginny and Draco... and in the meantime, Harry noticed suddenly, Riddle's outline was becoming clearer, more solid... If it had to be a fight between them and Riddle, better sooner than later.

"No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked me," said Harry abruptly. "I don't know myself but I know why you couldn't kill me. Because my mother died to save me; my common Muggleborn mother," he added, shaking with suppressed rage. "She stopped you killing me. And I've seen the real you, we saw you last year. You're a wreck. You're barely alive. That's where all your power got you. You're in hiding. You're ugly, you're foul…"

Riddle's face contorted. Then he forced it into an awful smile. "So… Your mother died to save you. Yes, that's a powerful countercharm. I can see now... there is nothing special about you, after all. I wondered, you see. There are strange likenesses between us, after all. Even you must have noticed. Both halfbloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself. We even look something alike... but after all, it was merely a lucky chance that saved you from me. That's all I wanted to know."

Harry stood, tense, waiting for Riddle to raise his wand. But Riddle's twisted smile was widening again.

"Now, Harry, I'm going to teach you a little lesson. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against _famous_ Harry Potter, and his faithful _bodyguard_."

He cast an amused eye at Faykan again, and then walked away. Harry stepped slowly towards Faykan as Riddle stopped between the high pillars and looked up into the face of Slytherin. Harry felt something cold and metallic press into his hand, and he closed his fist around it desperately.

"When I yell, run for the exit," whispered Faykan in his ear.

Riddle opened his mouth wide and hissed, but Harry understood what he was saying,

"_Speak to me Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four."_

Harry spun to look at the statue, lifting Faykan's sword in his hands. It was surprisingly light for such a large weapon. Faykan had also raised his wand in a defensive position, ready to cast at the first sign of movement from Riddle or the statue.

Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving. Horrorstruck, Harry saw his mouth opening, wider and wider, to make a huge black hole. And something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths.

"Go Harry!" Faykan shouted as he darted forward. Harry turned and ran, just as something huge hit the stone floor of the Chamber. But what chance could Faykan have against a Basilisk, the king of serpents? Then he heard Riddle's hissing voice:

"_Kill them_."

Immediately, Harry heard the commanding voice of Faykan, "_elea naara wanwa._"_[1]_ There was a roar of pain, and Harry couldn't help himself. He turned to look. The enormous serpent, bright, poisonous green, thick as an oak trunk, had raised itself high in the air and its great blunt head was weaving drunkenly between the pillars. Where the snake's eyes should have been were two cauterized holes, as if the sockets had been burned away.

"NO!" Harry heard Riddle screaming. "You may have blinded the Basilisk, boy, but it can still smell you!"

The blinded serpent swayed, confused, still deadly. Faykan was firing jets of multicolored light at it, trying to distract it long enough for Harry to escape, but Riddle began to attack Faykan. The smaller boy was forced onto the defensive, which allowed the Basilisk to recover from being blinded.

"_Forget that one, the boy is behind you. Smell him out. Kill him!_" Riddle hissed as he dueled with Faykan.

Harry was ready as the Basilisk turned. The basilisk's head was falling, its body coiling around, hitting pillars as it twisted to face him. He could see the scarred, bloody eye sockets, see the mouth stretching wide, wide enough to swallow him whole, lined with fangs long as his sword, thin, glittering, venomous…

It lunged blindly; Harry dodged and it hit the Chamber wall. It lunged again, and its forked tongue lashed against Harry's side. He raised the sword in both his hands.

The basilisk lunged again, and this time its aim was true. Harry threw his whole weight behind the sword and drove it to the hilt into the roof of the serpent's mouth.

But as warm blood drenched Harry's arms, he felt a searing pain just above his elbow. One long, poisonous fang was sinking deeper and deeper into his arm and it splintered as the basilisk keeled over sideways and fell, twitching, to the floor.

Harry slid down the wall. He gripped the fang that was spreading poison through his body and wrenched it out of his arm. But he knew it was too late. White hot pain was spreading slowly and steadily from the wound. Even as he dropped the fang and watched his own blood soaking his robes, his vision went foggy. The Chamber was dissolving in a whirl of dull color.

"HARRY!" Faykan screamed. Harry could hear the sounds of running footsteps coming towards him, and someone hefted him into their arms, but it was too difficult to focus. Another shadow moved in front of him.

"He's as good as dead, boy. I'll let you live long enough to see your precious hero fall before me." Riddle laughed.

But Faykan was murmuring in Harry's ear, completely ignoring Riddle's taunts, "_coia auta n'alaquel, harwa poika_"_[2]_

Riddle apparently took no notice of what Faykan was doing, because he continued gloating, "I'm going to sit here and watch you die, Harry Potter. Take your time.

I'm in no hurry."

Harry felt drowsy. Everything around him seemed to be spinning.

"So ends the famous Harry Potter," said Riddle's distant voice. "Alone in the Chamber of Secrets, defeated at last by the Dark Lord he so unwisely challenged. You'll be back with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Harry... She bought you twelve years of borrowed time ... but Lord Voldemort got you in the end, as you knew he must . . . ."

'If this is dying,' thought Harry, 'it's not so bad.'

Even the pain was leaving him...

But was this dying? Instead of going black, the Chamber seemed to be coming back into focus. Harry gave his head a little shake and there was Faykan, holding his wand over Harry's wound; except that there was no wound.

"Get away, boy," said Riddle's voice suddenly. "Get away from him… NO! What have you done?"

Harry raised his head. Riddle was pointing Harry's wand at Faykan, and suddenly there was the sound of gagging. Faykan was clutching his throat, unable to breathe.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Riddle roared raising the wand higher, lifting Faykan off the ground; suspending him in midair as the life slowly was strangled out of him.

Rage consumed Harry's mind. His friends were dying and there was nothing he could do. He glared at Riddle, contempt and anger boiling within him, and suddenly his scar burned white hot. His vision clouded in blinding whiteness, and Riddle started to scream in agony. Then in a burst of light, Riddle's body exploded into tiny sparks, and he was gone.

Faykan collapsed onto the ground, breathing hard with blood trickling from his nose. Harry's wand also clattered to the ground. Shaking all over, Harry pulled himself up. His head was spinning as though he'd just traveled miles by Floo powder. His head was pounding with pain, but it was fading quickly as he pulled Faykan to his feet, and retrieved the sword from the roof of the Basilisk's mouth.

Then there came a faint moan from the end of the Chamber. Ginny was stirring. As Harry hurried toward her, she sat up. Her bemused eyes traveled from the huge form of the dead basilisk, over Harry, in his blood-soaked robes, then to the diary in his hand. She drew a great, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.

Harry tried to comfort her, and he saw Faykan kneel by Draco, who still hadn't awoken. Faykan lifted to boy's head and examined the wounds to the back of Draco's head. Finally Faykan set him down and lifted his wand over him. "Draco _lasto beth nîn, tolo dan nan__galad_."_[3]_ Slowly, Draco retuned to consciousness, groaning in the sudden pain in his head.

"What happened?" Draco said after a moment, "Last thing I remember was following Ginny into Myrtle's bathroom and something hitting me on the head."

"You were taken into the Chamber of Secrets, Draco. You and Ginny; she was being possessed by Tom Riddle, the heir of Slytherin." Faykan turned to Harry, "We really should get them out of here and up to the hospital wing."

"Riddle!" Ginny cried looking around, "Where is he? The last thing I remember is him coming out of the diary."

"It's all right," said Harry, holding up the diary, which was blackened and smoldering. "Riddle's finished. Look, him and the basilisk. C'mon, Ginny, let's get out of here…"

"I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny wept as Harry helped her awkwardly to her feet. "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came and n-now I'll have to leave and… w-what'll Mum and Dad say?"

Faykan led the way out of the Chamber, supporting Draco while Harry helped Ginny. Harry urged Ginny forward; they stepped over the motionless coils of the dead basilisk, through the echoing gloom, and back into the tunnel. Harry heard the stone doors close behind them with a soft hiss.

After a few minutes' progress up the dark tunnel, a distant sound of slowly shifting rock reached Harry's ears.

"Ron!" Harry yelled, speeding up. "Ginny's okay! I've got her!"

He heard Ron give a strangled cheer, and they turned the next bend to see his eager face staring through the sizable gap he had managed to make in the rock fall.

"Ginny!" Ron thrust an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened?"

"We'll explain when we get out of here," Faykan said as he eased Draco through the gap.

"But…"

"Later," Harry said shortly.

They reached the pipe where they had entered minutes later, Draco now walking under his own power while Harry and Ron supported Ginny.

"Um, how are we going to get back up?" Ron asked.

"_Stairs…_" Harry hissed, and stairs emerged out of the tunnel walls, spiraling back up to Myrtle's bathroom.

Myrtle goggled at them as they emerged from the tunnel.

"You're alive," she said blankly to Harry.

"There's no need to sound so disappointed," he said grimly, wiping flecks of blood and slime off his glasses. Faykan snorted loudly.

"Where to now?" Draco said, and Faykan led them to Professor McGonagall's office, barging right in without knocking.

There was a moment of silence as Harry, Faykan, Ron, Draco and Ginny walked through the doorway, covered in muck, slime and blood, broken only by the scream of Mrs. Weasley as she launched herself at her daughter, closely followed by her husband.

Harry, however, was looking past them. Professor Dumbledore was standing by the mantelpiece, beaming, next to Professor McGonagall, who was taking great, steadying gasps, clutching her chest.

Harry felt himself, Faykan and Ron being swept into Mrs. Weasleys tight embrace seconds after she released Ginny.

"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?"

"I think we'd all like to know that," said Professor McGonagall weakly.

Mrs. Weasley let go of Harry, who hesitated for a moment, then walked over to the desk and laid upon it what remained of Riddle's diary.

Then he started telling them everything. For nearly a quarter of an hour he spoke into the rapt silence: He told them about hearing the disembodied voice, how Hermione had finally realized that he was hearing a basilisk in the pipes; how he, Faykan, Draco and Ron had followed the spiders into the forest, that Aragog had told them where the last victim of the basilisk had died; how they had guessed that Moaning Myrtle had been the victim, and that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets might be in her bathroom.

"Very well," Professor McGonagall prompted him as he paused, "so you found out where the entrance was, breaking a hundred school rules into pieces along the way, I might add, but how on earth did you all get out of there alive, Potter?"

So Harry, helped by Faykan because Harry's voice was growing hoarse, told them about Riddle, the diary, and about Harry using Faykan's sword to kill the Basilisk while Faykan fending off Riddle's memory.

"Might I examine this sword, Mr. Undol," Dumbledore said softly, and Faykan unsheathed and presented the sword to the Headmaster. Dumbledore looked at the blade with great interest, and studied the rune covered hilt. "Mr. Undol, by any chance do you know what these runes on the hilt read?" he asked.

"Certainly," Faykan replied, "they read: _Turgon aran __Gondolin__ tortha, Gar a matha I vegil Glamdring Gud Daedheloth, Dam an Glamhoth._ Meaning: Turgon king of Gondolin wields, has and holds the sword Glamdring, Foe of Morgoth's realm, and hammer to the Orcs_._"

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows in amazement, "You know how to read and speak the ancient language of the elves, Mr. Undol?"

"Yes sir."

Dumbledore returned Faykan his sword and picked up the blackened diary from Harry, peering keenly down his long, crooked nose at its burnt and soggy pages. Finally, Dumbledore looked up at the Weasleys, then over to Draco, who was sitting in the background trying to stay awake.

"Miss Weasley and Mr. Malfoy should go up to the hospital wing right away," he said in a firm voice. "This has been a terrible ordeal for them both." He strode over to the door and opened it, "They need bed rest and perhaps a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. I always find that cheers me up," he added, twinkling kindly down at Ginny. "You will find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake. She's just giving out Mandrake juice; I daresay the basilisk's victims will be waking up any moment."

Mrs. Weasley led Ginny out, and Mr. Weasley followed, still looking deeply shaken. Draco turned and left with Ron supporting him; he did look very tired to Harry.

"You know, Minerva," Professor Dumbledore said thoughtfully to Professor McGonagall, "I think all this merits a good feast. Might I ask you to go and alert the kitchens?"

"Right," said Professor McGonagall crisply, also moving to the door. "I'll leave you to deal with Potter and Undol, shall I?"

"Certainly," said Dumbledore.

She left, and Harry and Faykan gazed uncertainly at Dumbledore. What exactly had Professor McGonagall meant, deal with them? Surely… surely, they weren't about to be punished?

"I seem to remember telling you both as well as Mr. Weasley that I would have to expel you if you broke any more school rules, said Dumbledore.

Harry opened his mouth in horror.

"Which goes to show that the best of us must sometimes eat our words," Dumbledore went on, smiling. "You three will receive Special Awards for Services to the School and, let me see, yes, I think two hundred points apiece for Gryffindor."

For a minute, none of them spoke. Then Dumbledore pulled open one of the drawers in Professor McGonagall's desk and took out a quill and a bottle of ink.

"What you need, boys, is some food and sleep. I suggest you go down to the feast, while I write to Azkaban; we need our gamekeeper back. And I must draft an advertisement for the Daily Prophet, too," he added thoughtfully. "We'll be needing a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher... Dear me, we do seem to run through them, don't we?"

Harry and Faykan got up and crossed to the door. Harry had just reached for the handle, however, when the door burst open so violently that it bounced back off the wall.

Lucius Malfoy stood there, fury in his face. And cowering behind his legs, heavily wrapped in bandages, was Dobby.

"Good evening, Lucius," said Dumbledore pleasantly.

Mr. Malfoy almost knocked Harry over as he swept into the room. Dobby went scurrying in after him, crouching at the hem of his cloak, a look of abject terror on his face.

"So!" he said "You've come back. The governors suspended you, but you still saw fit to return to Hogwarts."

"Well, you see, Lucius," said Dumbledore, smiling serenely, "the other eleven governors contacted me today. It was something like being caught in a hailstorm of owls, to tell the truth. They'd heard that Arthur Weasley's daughter and your son had been killed and wanted me back here at once. They seemed to think I was the best man for the job after all. Very strange tales they told me, too... Several of them seemed to think that you had threatened to curse their families if they didn't agree to suspend me in the first place."

Mr. Malfoy went even paler than usual, but his eyes were still slits of fury.

"My son… So, have you stopped the attacks yet?" he sneered. "Have you caught the culprit?"

"We have," said Dumbledore, with a smile.

"Well?" said Mr. Malfoy sharply. "Who is it?"

"The same person as last time, Lucius," said Dumbledore. "But this time, Lord Voldemort was acting through somebody else. By means of this diary."

He held up the small black book with the large hole through the center, watching Mr. Malfoy closely.

"I see..." said Mr. Malfoy slowly to Dumbledore.

"A clever plan," said Dumbledore in a level voice, still staring Mr. Malfoy straight in the eye. "Because if Harry here," Mr. Malfoy shot Harry a swift, sharp look, "and his friends Faykan and Ron hadn't discovered this book, why… Ginny Weasley might have taken all the blame. No one would ever have been able to prove she hadn't acted of her own free will…"

Mr. Malfoy said nothing. His face was suddenly masklike.

"And imagine," Dumbledore went on, "what might have happened then... The Weasleys are one of our most prominent pureblood families. Imagine the effect on Arthur Weasley and his Muggle Protection Act, if his own daughter was discovered attacking and killing Muggleborns... Very fortunate the diary was discovered, and Riddle's memories wiped from it. Who knows what the consequences might have been otherwise..."

Mr. Malfoy forced himself to speak.

"Very fortunate," he said stiffly. Mr. Malfoy turned to Harry again, "I suppose I must thank you for saving the life of my son." He looked through his robes, and then turned to look down at Dobby with a small grin. "Ah…" he breathed, "I present you with this gift and my thanks…" he said pointing at Dobby. "Dobby, I formally give ownership of you to Mr. Harry Potter." He nodded and left quickly half slamming the door behind him.

_[1]elea naara wanwa : sight burn away_

_[2]coia auta n'alaquel, harwa poika : life return, wound be clean _

_[3]lasto beth nîn, tolo dan nan__galad : hear my voice, come back to the light._

**_Please Remember to Review!_**


	13. Epilogue

****Many Thanks to those who reviewed Chapter Eleven! The grand finale of book two is here. I'll give the standard week for people to get in their final reviews of book two before posting the prologue of book three, Mists of Lies, which will naturally be posted as a separate story. Enjoy!****

**Epilogue**

**Dobby's Master **

Harry had been to several Hogwarts feasts in the past, but none had been quite like this. Everybody was in their pajamas, and the celebration lasted all night. Harry didn't know whether the best bit was Hermione running toward him, screaming "You solved it! You solved it!" or Justin hurrying over from the Hufflepuff table to wring his hand and apologize endlessly for suspecting him, or Hagrid turning up at half past three, cuffing Harry, Faykan and Ron so hard on the shoulders that they were knocked into their plates of trifle, or their six hundred points for Gryffindor securing the House Cup for the second year running, or Professor McGonagall standing up to tell them all that the exams had been canceled as a school treat ("Oh, no!" said Hermione), or Dumbledore announcing that, unfortunately, Professor Lockhart would be unable to return next year, owing to his untimely and accidental death. Quite a few of the teachers joined in the cheering that greeted this news.

The rest of the final term passed in a haze of blazing sunshine. Hogwarts was back to normal with only a few, small differences; Defense Against the Dark Arts classes were canceled ("but we've had plenty of practice at that anyway," Ron told a disgruntled Hermione) and Lucius Malfoy had been sacked as a school governor. Nott was no longer strutting around the school as though he owned the place. On the contrary, he looked resentful and sulky. On the other hand, Ginny Weasley was perfectly happy again. Draco was still moody, but it was mainly due to finding out that his father had been behind the attacks. Harry had learned of this from Dobby, who had been more than happy to spill the Malfoys' dirtiest secrets to his new master, starting with Mr. Malfoy's hand in the plot that year.

At first, Harry hadn't had any idea what to do with his new servant, but Faykan helped him by suggesting that he send Dobby to Diagon Alley to get a new uniform that was more becoming than the dirty pillow case that he usually wore. As an afterthought, Harry also asked for Dobby to wait in his room at Privet Drive for him to return during the summer.

The last day of the school year, Collin Creevey caught up to Harry and Faykan once again, practically begging them for one picture, and Harry finally consented, on the condition that he and Faykan could get a copy each of it that night. Collin was ecstatic, and together Faykan and Harry stood in the middle of the busy common room for the boy to take the perfect picture. They both even signed his copy for him, which sent the kid skipping away in pure joy. Later Harry overheard Faykan telling Collin about the black fox that could sometimes be found in the common room, and how it didn't like being picked up or petted hard like a plush toy, and Harry almost burst into laugher at Faykan's attempts to control his frustration at the boy, since Collin didn't understand how Faykan could know about the fox, since he was never awake at the times that Collin saw it.

Too soon, it was time for the journey home on the Hogwarts Express. Harry, Faykan, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Draco and Ginny got a compartment to themselves. They made the most of the last few hours in which they were allowed to do magic before the holidays. They played Exploding Snap, set off the very last of Fred and George's Filibuster fireworks, and practiced disarming each other by magic. Harry was getting very good at it.

The Hogwarts Express slowed and finally stopped in King's Cross.

"Your aunt and uncle will be proud, though, won't they?" said Hermione as they got off the train and joined the crowd thronging toward the enchanted barrier. "When they hear what you did this year?"

"Proud?" said Harry. "Are you crazy? All those times I could've died, and I didn't manage it? They'll be furious…"

"Speaking of them, Harry. Are you ready to brave the muggles for another few weeks before returning to the wizarding world?" Faykan said.

"Do I have to?" Harry whined.

"Unfortunately. Don't worry, I'll pick you up earlier this year, and maybe we'll all congregate at my home for a month or two this summer." Faykan replied cheerfully.

These words kept Harry happy the entire trip back to Privet Drive. Faykan left him on the doorstep and vanished with a loud pop while Harry opened the door. Aunt Petunia ignored him as Harry went up to his room.

Opening the door, Harry was greeted by an excited Dobby bowing low, "Welcome home, Master Harry Potter, Sir…"

**To Be Continued…**

_**Please Review!**_


	14. Year Three is Online

New Player 3: Mists of Lies is up as a separate story. Please continue the adventure of Harry and friends in the exciting new installment.

Thank you for everyone who read and reviewed Year Two!

.net/s/7174229/1/A_New_Player_Year_Three_Mists_of_Lies


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